Mass Effect: Massive Shock
by Mockingbird79
Summary: Bad luck seems to follow me wherever I go. I've been pulled from universe to universe, forced to put skills I didn't know I had to the test. But now I'm in Mass Effect and I have a chance to make some good luck for myself. I have a year to prepare for the events of Mass Effect. Self Insert.
1. Chapter 1 Broken Rapture

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or 2K games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: /UPDATED/ Alright so, it's been a while since Massive Shock actually finished and there's a few things I want to mention to people new to the story that was overlooked initially.**

**First, this story wasn't a "Write as you go" kind of thing. Every single chapter, every word, every teeny bit of this story was written MONTHS in advance of its post date. Chapter one? Posted on December 20, 2011, despite being finished in October of that year.**

**Next, Like I said a while ago, this story is mostly OC's. In fact, you'll find most of the characters are OC. However, you'll get big, important roles from Mass Effect characters like Garrus, Tali, Sha'ira, Barla Von, so on, so on. **

**Moving on, this story is a Self-Insert, however, since I started writing, I feel the main character has drifted away and away from me as I went on. We became 2 different people, and though the character is based off of the author, he's actually not like me by the end of the story. We both change as the story goes, we both grow up. You'll notice that my writing style will change. You'll notice the tone of the story will change. And I prefer the word "Evolve" over change. The story grows as it goes, you'll see that. And part of the reason for that is the sheer amount of TIME it took me to write and post this. It took about 10 months to finish. (I expect the entire series will take up the next 5 years of my life. Yeah.) My life has changed a lot since I started writing, to when I finished it, and you'll see both myself, my writing, and my characters mature as the story goes on. So if you're one for more whimsy than anything else, you might want to stop reading after a while. If you're the opposite, be patient with it. You'll like it!**

**Next, I want to warn you: This story is long. I had a proper calculation a while back, but I lost count. But I want to guess that it's about… 600 to 800 pages worth of material? Just a warning, the chapters average about 20 pages each.**

**And finally, I want to thank you personally for coming. **

**Personal Note: /UPDATED/ So, things change, but I'd like to thank some people.**

**First, great big thanks to my sister in particular, who's sat through a reading of every one of my chapters so far, giving me critique and help where I needed it. And thanks to everyone who reviewed my story, and thanks to everyone who gave me help when I asked for it. You know who you are, I'm not one to single people out, but I want everyone to know that it's soooo appreciated. If I ever meet one of you in real life (Doubtful, but you never know!) I WILL give you a big hug!**

**Stylistic Notes: Any Narration of any kind will be done in bold print. Any communications, read text, past events, stories, or subconscious thoughts of characters other than myself will be done in **_**italics. **_**Also you may notice that my favorite punctuation to use is the ellipsis (…) I don't really mean to use it. I just want to make the story sound like it's coming straight out of my noggin. And that's how I think, full of awkward pauses. Anyways, Enjoy!**

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><p><strong>Rated M: For Coarse Language, Graphic Violence, and Non-Explicit Suggestive Themes.<strong>

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><p>"<strong>Nothing endures but change."<strong>

**~Heraclitus~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 1: Broken Rapture<strong>

**9:43 AM December 20, 2011**

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><p>My name is Robert Jackson. I am 17 years old today. It's harder than you think, you know. Describing yourself without sounding like an ass. Well, I'll try my best.<p>

I'm pretty short, about 5' 9" or about 175 cm for my metrics and about 200 pounds or around 90 kg. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not unfit, far from it. I'm in the best shape of my life. I exercise six days a week and I stay pretty active. I used to do competitive boxing and had a perfect record of 7-0. You'd think that would make me very fit all around but truth be told I'm probably one of the least agile people out there. Sure, sure, I can beat most people at arm wrestling and I am often the first person people call when they need help moving but if you asked me to climb a fence or even vault over a railing, I wouldn't because I would run the risk of falling and cracking my skull on the pavement. Now if you asked me to try and pull the fence down or break the railing, I'd give it a shot.

If you asked me what my favorite feature about myself was, it would probably be a tossup between my eyes and my hair. My eyes are a light green with a splash of yellow in there too. My eyes are my friends' favorite feature of me, but I like my hair. I have thick dark brown hair that I wear in a short Mohawk, sort of like Logan's hair in Dead Island. Except I shave a little strip out of the back so that it looks like an exclamation point, like Johnny's hair in Metal Gear Solid 4. You've probably inferred by now that I like video games. I'm pretty mainstream; I have all the best games and all the major systems.

Now, now I know what you're thinking: This guy can't possibly have any flaws! Well believe it or not I do.

I am typically too much of a nice guy, often sacrificing far too much for other people. And as everybody knows, nice guys finish last. Like this one time I helped a friend out by lending them like 200 bucks. I got a little pissed at him when he came to school a week later with a brand spanking new pair of super smooth Raybans. That leads me to the next one; I can get a little… aggressive, when I'm angry. But it's not like I have no self-control, for instance I'd never hit a girl. NEVER! That's just despicable… My biggest and most annoying flaw is that I have little to no inner monologue, it's a wonder I'm not saying this out loud right now. Now I know what you're thinking, "Well that's just Tourette's." I'm afraid you're wrong there, because I don't blurt out random vulgarities. I just can't think in my own head.

I also have a little trouble taking things seriously. And I'm a little narcissistic… which is probably why I'm talking about myself in my head… but in my opinion that's not really a flaw.

Anyways, so it's my birthday. My family decided it would be a good idea to take me on a little outing today, but I'd much rather just lie around at home. For some reason they're taking me to a weird 1950's to 1970's era museum in San Francisco. What the fuck? I don't even like the 1950's! What's good about it? Stalin? Cold War? Cambodian genocide? Or maybe Dr. King getting assassinated? Though that kind of led to Civil rights so… Still! What the hell?

"We're here!" my mom announces from the driver's seat.

"Finally!" my brother, my partner in crime, exclaims next to me.

"Rob! You're seventeen!" my mom says in some vain excitement, "How does it feel?"

"I feel like a new pair of pants. Tight," Oh God… that was an awful, AWFUL joke. My sister chuckles a little next to me.

As we walk up to the museum entrance I turn up the volume on my iPod in attempt to drown out external distractions. Events seemingly fly by from there, go inside and get a program of exhibits, all the dull stuff. My mom is mouthing something noiselessly, seems important so I pull my ear buds out of my ears.

"…meet back here at 11:00 okay?"

"What for?" I say.

My mom rolls her eyes and feigns anger, "Rob, were you listening? We're meeting back here for lunch and a movie!"

"Oh, alright, so I can just wander?"

"Yep."

"Sweet."

I immediately walk off in another direction, plugging my ear buds back into my ears. Oh look an exhibit about cities… boring. An exhibit about the space race… plaque has too many words. And… oh yay… an exhibit on planes, damn those are some old machines… wait… what's that?

I can hear something, sounds like talking even though the museum is deserted. I pull the ear buds out of my head and look around. A garbled, static clouded voice is emanating from a fat looking radio in the plane exhibit.

I walk up to it and duck underneath the velvet rope. I fiddle with the knobs a little and the voice clears up.

"…_receive? 17 seconds. Do you receive? 16 seconds. Do you receive? 15 seconds…"_ The voice keeps repeating and counting down, it sounds hard and metallic, probably because of the radio.

I pick up the receiver. "Hello?"

"_Ah. At last. 13 seconds remaining until structured event. Are you receiving?"_

"Uh… sure?"

"_10 seconds. Then we will see you very soon, Robert Jackson."_

My eyes widen. Did this radio just say my name? "Who is this?!"

"_9 seconds. We look forward to meeting you. 8 seconds. Do not worry yourself. 7 seconds. Do not fear. 6 seconds. Only fight. 5 seconds until structured event. 4 seconds. 3 seconds. 2 seconds. One second."_

A sound, like an explosion rips at my ears, then it is followed by a hideous screaming that rips and tears at my head. I clutch at the sides of my head in terrible pain and knock the radio over. It feels like the sound is spinning around inside my skull. Ah! This shit hurts! What the fuck is happening?! The pain is too excruciating, I feel like my brain is boiling in my skull. I drop to the ground in pain. When will it end? Everything goes dark.

_I'm in darkness. I can't see anything. But I can see everything at the same time. Like this room, this darkness, is all that there is and ever was. It's a void, a place where nothing dwells, a dark space in the light of day. I can't hear a thing. Not a thing. Am I breathing? Am I alive? A glint of something in the distance catches my eye. Impossible. There is no light for something to glint off of, is there? The thing approaches. It looks like a metal hand reaching from the dark towards me. I can't move. The sound in my head, the screaming of a million billion souls, grows louder in my head as the hand approaches. I can't fight it. The hand latches onto my skull and rips and tears at my face and my head until my brain is exposed. The hand pulls my brain from my skull and begins to pull it away into the darkness. I follow it, stumbling, trying to take my mind back. The hand laughs at me in a voice that draws like molasses and echoes in metal. I want to scream at it, to roar, but the hand has taken my voice too. I fall to the ground. I look up. The hand is holding my mind above me. A second hand, this one devoid of flesh, a skeleton's hand, stretches from the dark towards me. Between the hands, a face, a skull that is half metal and half bone appears partly shrouded by a hood that blends in with the dark of the void behind it. The Grim Reaper laughs at me, laughs because I think I am still alive, that I am still my own. _

_The maw of the skull opens and a pair of pale lips can be seen from inside. The lips speak. "You are ours. Be born. Grow. Sleep. Awaken. Repeat. Learn. Become. Work. Fight. Continue. Then find your end. Live, slave. But do not die here. We have a need of you. Your end will come, in time. Now, you will soon be born again. You will quickly grow. Your sleep will come very soon."_

_It reaches out with its bony hand and touches my forehead. The touch of death. The world goes even darker than it was before._

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><p><em><strong>?<strong>_

I'm not dead. Well I suppose I might be, I don't know what it feels like after all. I'm not unconscious, I've been that before. I'm still aware. The inside of my eyelids aren't illuminated by the dull light from the museum. They're illuminated by… moonlight? And it's cold. Really cold!

"Gah!" I exclaim as something icy and wet climbs my feet.

I sit up and look down at my shoes, which are in a pool of… sea water? I quickly take my feet out and stand.

Shit it's cold! It must be below freezing here! All I have on is a freaking t-shirt and jeans! Sure they're nice but not warm!

I stare around at my surroundings. I'm on some kind of stone staircase facing an amazingly tall structure, it is oddly familiar. I turn around and gape at the vast ocean before me. Great. Where the hell am I? Maybe hell…

"Well guess I'm not swimming out of here," I say to myself as I walk through the huge ornate doors of the tall structure.

The room I'm in is pitch black, where the only light is the moonlight coming through the small opening in the door where I entered. The door suddenly closes behind me and I'm left standing shivering in the cold dark. Minutes pass, I'm afraid to take a step. I can hear something near me. The wind? No… breathing.

Suddenly the room lights up as the power kicks in and I blink and cover my face. I rub my eyes and try to adjust them to the light. A small chuckle from behind me makes me whirl around in shock. Nothing. No I wasn't hallucinating or anything. That was a laugh. I look around to my left and right frantically, still nothing. Okay just remember your dojo training. What's the number one rule in video games?

Look up.

I do as I am trained. Oh shit. A figure is hanging from the ceiling above me. It drops and I quickly side step. The figure is clearly human, but so disfigured and deformed I threw up in my mouth a little bit. The man (or woman?) is wearing torn, dirty and shabby clothing that is drenched in blood and the he-she has threatening meat hooks in each hand. Okay I'm not one to profile people but I think this bitch or bastard wants to kill me.

"Hey handsome," the monster says in a surprisingly feminine voice, I can't help but feel flattered. "Wanna dance?"

The creature takes a few steps forward, her arms at her sides. Okay really threatened here. She suddenly lunges at me and tackles me to the floor. I immediately roll her over and I get on top. In a fit of adrenaline filled combat rage I smash my fist into her deformed face repeatedly.

She screams and laughs maniacally. She kicks me off and I slam into a wall. She leaps to her feet and does a back flip.

I get to my feet just in time to dodge the pair of meat hooks flying at me after she threw them. They latch into the wall behind me.

Now's my chance.

I charge and slam my shoulder into her stomach. She back peddles a little and falls onto her back. Before she can stand I stomp on her knee as hard as I can. She screams in pain and excitement and clutches at her shattered kneecap. I take a few steps forward and curb stomp her deformed face repeatedly. Eventually she stops making noise and just twitches a little, her completely smashed in face is ringed by an expanding pool of blood. I quickly backpedal from her and into a wall. My God. I think I killed her… Isaac Clarke style! Clarke'd!

Hey what's that?

I see a massive golden statue holding a thick chain in its hands. That looks strangely familiar. Wait a minute this is all really familiar. In the sudden realization that I've been in this place before, I look over my shoulder at the dead creature, then at her weapons in the wall. Wait I recognize this place… is this…?

I run over to a plaque that sits in front of the statue. A large golden button sits in the middle, I press it and a hideously familiar voice speaks to me from it:

"_Is man not entitled to the sweat on his brow?"_

Oh shit.

"'_No!' Says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor!'"_

This can't be real.

"'_No!' Says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God!'"_

Oh God…

"'_No!' Says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone!'"_

I'm in…

"_I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible, I chose…"_

"Rapture…" I say out loud, in unison with Andrew Ryan. My inner monologue has failed me yet again…

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><p><strong>5:49 AM December 20, 1968<strong>

Six years. Six fucking years I've been in hell. I've been fighting everything, from Splicers, to Big Sisters, to Big Daddies. All for what? Tenenbaum and the Little Sisters? ADAM maybe? Survival? I still can't believe I'm in freaking Rapture. That place didn't even exist in my universe. It was just a fictional location in BioShock! A fucking video game!

I remember when I first saw one of them. Little Sisters, that is. Dirty, smelly, blood oozing from her mouth. I needed ADAM somehow, but I didn't want to harvest her, but I didn't have that Rescue plasmid either. So I had her take me to Tenenbaum. Wasn't easy though, I had to convince her that I was her older brother, apparently she could tell I had no ADAM in my system. That's when I knew for sure that I was in Rapture in 1962. That Little Sister's name was Anne. And she was the first one I rescued.

Since then I have rescued 72 Little Sisters, while simultaneously trying to survive against Sophia Lamb's goons. She really hates me. I can't say that I blame her, Lamb has been making Little Sisters almost constantly and I keep rescuing them and taking them to Tenenbaum.

Splicers loyal to Lamb finally got me though. Today, on my 23rd birthday, on the 6th anniversary of my death and my rebirth. I was just minding my own business, enjoying a bottle of smooth merlot, wearing the clothes I came to Rapture in like I do every year, when I got hit on the head and knocked unconscious. FYI I usually don't like to drink, but I'll get drunk on another birthday alone, like every single man out there I'm sure.

Now I'm being dragged through the hallways, getting my jeans wet. This sucks! I need to escape this damned city somehow! I can't take a bathysphere out of here until Delta kills that crazy ass Pastor guy or I'll get blasted out of the sea by a torpedo. I can't take Sinclair's sub, that'll be messing with the Balance. That's a term I came up with when I refer to how things are supposed to happen. I can't do anything that'll mess with the Balance or the future could turn out very different. Every day I dread when Rapture will sink and I'll drown, while everybody else is whisked off to safety. Well except for all the Splicers in the city…

As we pass in front of a hotel, I see the genetic ghost of a woman being stabbed to death by a man. I've had this problem with those genetic ghosts like Jack did in the first Bioshock game; they'll appear every once in a while appearing almost like they're in a film noire or something. I see the splicer on my left notices it too… Hey, that means we share genetic code! Gross! Seriously, splicers look like something out of a Marilyn Manson music video.

"So, you guys ever meet Delta," I mumble as the two splicers drag me down the hall.

"Shut up! Lamb is gonna rip you up good!" The splicer on my right with MY tommy gun says.

"I've never met him personally," I say spitting a tooth onto the ground, "But I'm an admirer of his work."

"Quiet!" The on my left with MY shotgun says, he raises it threateningly into my face, "Or I won't wait for Lamb to—"

The ground, the walls, and the ceiling shake violently. Oh shit! It's starting. The window near us forms a long jagged crack along its length and makes a loud noise and the splicer on my left drops my arm and aims towards the window as it cracks. Big mistake.

I grab the forearm of the splicer on my right with my free left hand. Icicles erupt from the back of my hand and ice coats my skin as I activate my Winter's Blast plasmid power. The splicer's forearm freezes quickly and I yank my arm from his grasp. The force of it tears his limb off at the freezing point. He drops my tommy gun and screams in pain.

I quickly pick up my tommy gun and gun down the other splicer as he turns around. After he is dead, I turn around and take my crowbar off of my belt and swing it into the remaining splicer's head. He drops down. Ah good old crowbar, works just as well against splicers as it does against head-crabs… Thank God I didn't get sent to the Half Life universe. I grab my shotgun and I stuff both of my weapons in my backpack and I start running toward the nearest bathysphere, I'm getting out of this damn city. I spot my reflection in a window and pause for a second to stare at myself instinctively.

It's shocking really how much I've changed. I used to be fairly tan, rather stout and muscular, with a neat short mohawk as my preferred hair style. Now my hair is dirty and matted and is almost shoulder length and I'm finally growing that beard I've always wanted. Though, I'd say it's more like thick stubble than a real beard. I've also gotten a lot taller, leaner, thinner, and paler over the past six years. Luckily my pants were a little oversized. If I saw myself on the street I'd think I was a hobo.

First thing I'm doing once I'm out of here? Getting a goddamn haircut. Then a shower. Then proper food. I'm tired of these damn Pep Bars!

I don't need to worry about Tenenbaum or any of the Little Sisters. They all escaped a few weeks ago. Therefore I was forced not to rescue any Little Sisters I found after they left because they wouldn't have anywhere to go if Delta was harvesting them, if he wasn't then they would go to Eleanor. Not like I knew if Delta was harvesting them or not. There's a reason I chose to rescue those little sisters and not harvest them. Actually two: First, I'm not that desperate for ADAM. Second, I'd preferably not rip open a small child to get ADAM.

The glass on the window cracks across my reflection and I am brought back to reality. I start running again, dodging debris and icy ocean water as I run.

I run full speed through the corridors and halls and rooms that I have become so familiar with over the past six years. I ignore the many panicking splicers around me as I run determined through the rooms. I leap over tables and counters deftly, which impresses me to no bounds. I've never been able to jump very well. A splicer gets too close and I whip my crowbar from my belt and smash it into his head. I hear a sickening yet satisfying crack and I keep running without losing any momentum.

As I round one of the last corners to the bathysphere I hear a shout from behind me, "Big Brother!"

My heart nearly stops beating, even though it was beating a mile a minute just seconds before. I spin myself around and see a Little Sister running towards me. No not just any little sister, Anne. I run the rest of the way and give her a kneeling hug as she reaches me.

"Anne! What are you doing here?! You were supposed to leave with Tenenbaum weeks ago!" I yell over the explosions and breaking walls.

"I didn't want to leave you alone!" She yells back.

"What the—I can handle myself!" I say a little insulted.

She smiles. Her smile vanishes as a nearby pipe explodes and icy water pours out.

"We're getting out of here!" I say as I lift up Anne, one armed.

I run as fast and as smoothly as I can toward the bathysphere. Once we reach it I put Anne down and she runs inside. Right as I take a step to go inside something rams into me and lies on top of me. A spider splicer with knives instead of hooks, and a bandaged up head, is on top of me. He snarls and tries to plunge a knife into my chest with both his hands. I manage to catch his wrists before he reaches me, it becomes a test of strength as we fight for the upper hand.

"Big Brother!" I hear Anne scream from the bathysphere. I see her move to leave to help me. I can't let her get hurt.

I let go with one hand and use my Telekinesis plasmid to push her back inside the bathysphere, she yelps and looks at me frightened and pleading. I give her a reassuring smile that masks my pain as the knife begins to very slowly enter my chest, and raise my arm again. I use my Telekinesis plasmid to pull the lever controls of the bathysphere. Anne looks in fear and realization and rushes to the door as it closes. I can see her mouthing the words "Big Brother" inside.

I tear my eyes away and look into the spider splicers deep orange eyes. I grab the side of his bandaged face with my free hand and activate my Incinerate plasmid. My hand suddenly lights on fire and so does his head. He screams in pain and tries to roll off of me but I roll with him and keep my hold on his face. He kicks me off and turns to run away. There is a large handprint burn that went straight through the bandages on his face. He glares at me and runs out of the room.

I turn, yanking the knife that's stuck in my chest a little out, and see the top of the bathysphere just vanishing over the large pool of water. I run and jump onto it and hold onto it with all my strength. I hold my breath as best I can as the bathysphere lowers itself into the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean. My lungs were already burning from all the running and I didn't get a full breath into my lungs, let's just hope the bathysphere moves fast. I fight the gasping reaction that comes with getting plunged into icy water and grip the bathysphere with all my strength.

I open my eyes after an immeasurable amount of time and see out of the corner of my eye that Rapture is already sinking into a very deep abyss and we're slowly rising to the surface of the ocean. I can see Sinclair's sub rising very quickly to the surface. Damn Sinclair, bastard thought I was just a damn splicer when I first met him.

Then I feel my guts lurch to the side inside of me as a massive explosion from Rapture causes our bathysphere to spin out of control. I hold on for dear life and force my eyes open. I can see Anne inside of the bathysphere clinging onto a support rail in fear.

I know what I have to do now. It hits me that I have nothing left to live for except for these kids. I'll do what I have to then.

I let go of the bathysphere and push myself off of it. The momentum of the spinning bathysphere carries me for a short while before I steady and start sinking. I face the out of control bathysphere and muster the last bit of EVE in my body to steady the bathysphere with my Telekinetic plasmid and send it flying toward the surface. I see the bathysphere hit the surface of the ocean. Good, she's gonna make it.

I feel weak and heavy as I slowly descend after Rapture as it sinks into the dark undersea chasm. My lungs are screaming for oxygen, but I won't let them have any. I can't. My life flashes before my eyes and that's all it takes me to realize that I didn't have any hard life growing up. My parents were happy, which was a rare occurrence in America. My family was kind and loved me. I was a smart guy who did well in school and had a lot of friends who cared about me and who I cared about in turn. Now I can see how I took that all for granted. Now that I have nothing, that I'm about to die, I don't miss it anymore. I used to hold on to that faint hope that somehow I might get to see them all again. That was a vain hope however. I knew that I'd die here, but I just didn't want to admit it. Looks like that's it then.

I feel myself descending faster and I flip myself over now ready to accept my fate. I quickly descend into the pit that Rapture disappeared into. As I pass the edges of the pit, my vision darkens from the lack of light. Looks like this is it. Might as well get it over with. I open my mouth to take a breath and end it all.

Suddenly I feel a massive pull from my right and I am pulled straight into a pitch black crack in the abyss. I feel myself speeding through the abyss in pitch blackness and I don't know what's happening and I can't slow myself down, the pull is far too strong.

Deeper and deeper I fly into the abyss. All light has faded from the place and it seems like so long ago that I was in any kind of light, when in reality it has only been mere seconds. Light has become a memory in this place. As I move through the abyss. I feel a change. The small abyss around me feels almost as if it opens up into a world completely new.

This new place, darker than the heart of the Devil, feels different. I know that I am still in water, but the water is different. It's almost as if, rather than being in the icy waters of the Atlantic, I am in an air-conditioned room, the water feels more like still air.

In this place breathing becomes moot. Living feels unnecessary. Is this hell? Or maybe heaven? I can still feel myself moving with blinding speed through the water. The world around me is dark but also not dark. And just then, the Noise returns. The hideous disgusting Noise that I heard when I first went to hell, to Rapture. The Noise sounds like the screaming of some unearthly creature, one with a million billion mouths and voices, boring into my very being. This place is hell. I clutch in vain at the sides of my head, in an attempt to stop the noise. But the noise bores into every part of my skull.

Then as quickly as the noise came, it disappears. I feel myself slow down to a halt through the water. The water I am bathed in is warm and pleasant and I am welcomed to a bright light from above.

A light? A light! I swim towards it. Struggling to get myself closer to it. My lungs feel like they're turning inside out in search for oxygen. The light grows larger, and larger until it encompasses my whole vision. I can feel myself near the surface. Then my body gives out. The light fades from my vision and I fall unconscious.

I awake to the feeling of warm air all around me and warm lips upon mine, filling my lungs with air. Now that's a feeling I missed. I lurch and the lips that gave life back to me pull away. I turn on my side and cough out lungfuls of water onto the cold metal ground. I fall back onto my back and breathe. Funny how much you can like something especially if it's taken away from you… like air.

I hear muffled voices speaking and I feel hands on my shoulders shaking me. I try and open my eyes but the light blinds me and I cover my face with my arms. Some people help me sit up and I slowly adjust my eyes to the light.

I am looking down at my lap, and I am sitting on a cold metal floor. I can see a thin hand on my left thigh. Wait a minute… that can't be right… I blink to clear my vision. Okay that hand only has three fingers. I look up at the face of the three fingered person and see a hooded feminine figure with a glass mask obscuring her face in front of me.

"Are you okay buddy?" a flanged voice says from my right. I turn and see a… a… an alien with a painted metallic face and mandibles staring at me. Wait a minute that's a…

I look back at the masked woman. And that's a…

I look directly ahead of me to see the person that breathed life back into me. Her skin is blue and she has… tentacles or something instead of hair. That's a… an asari?

I look around at my surroundings, and I see many aliens walking or gathered around me. I can see a huge artificial lake to my left and a fake sky above me. In the center of the lake is a massive statue of a… Mass Relay…

Oh shit…

I'm on the Presidium… on the Citadel.


	2. Chapter 2 Presidium Rising

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or 2K games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Alright, alright so far so good. All I wanted to say is this: If you hate BioShock, that's not important. You don't have to like BioShock to like this story. If you hate Mass Effect, then I don't know what the hell you're doing here! **

**Regarding some of the reviews I already got, you guys asked a lot of questions. And I'll answer them all in four words: In good time, friends. This isn't your average story. I didn't write the 1st chapter and then i post it. I've been planning, discussing, and writing this story for months. I'm already up to Chapter 16. So in other words, this story is at a whole other level than any of my other stories were. It's a plot sponge leaking with viscous fluid. At first, chapter 1 was very different than it was now. But I've been adding things for months and now it is full of meaning that you cannot yet comprehend. There will be even more questions to be asked later on, but worry not! Everything will become clear in time. Specifacally: in the sequel.**

**Oh one last thing. This story will be pretty long, it'll average about 4,000-5,000 words per chapter. So it's not shy on descriptive language and quirkiness. Anyways, thanks for reading! Please Review with your thoughts for this chapter, and I'll see you next Tuesday!**

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><p>"<strong>Life is a choice."<strong>

**~Anonymous~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 2: Presidium Rising<strong>

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><p><strong>It's uh... Morning... I think...<strong>

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><p>"Buddy? Hey buddy?" the turian says snapping his talons in my face.<p>

I jump at the noise and look him in the eye. I must've zoned out there or something.

"You still with me?" the turian says.

"Uh…" I respond. I really don't know what to say. This is all a lot of new stuff. Not like this hasn't happened before or anything, but still! Aliens dammit! And not just any aliens, Mass Effect aliens! The coolest damned aliens ever thought up! I can't believe this… MASS EFFECT! One of my favorite games ever! And I'm in it! This is fascinating…

"Do you need any medical attention?" the quarian says.

I turn my head and look at her surprised. Sounds just like Tali. But I can tell it's not her. As a Talimancer I know for a fact that's not her. Her suit is similar to Tali's in the second game, except with varying shades of blue instead of purple. Yeah, go mysterious quarian girl! Way to fight conformity! Wait… medical attention?

"I… Uh… No?" I say confused.

"You're injured! You need medical attention!" The asari who knows CPR says to me. Hey… she's the Consort's greeter girl! The one with the gift of touch. What was her name? Nenyala? Nalayna? Nelena? Whatever... Wait injured?

"I—I do?" I say baffled. I look down at myself and see a thick piece of jagged and rusted metal sticking out of my shoulder. "Oh… I suppose I do…"

"I'm calling an ambulance," the turian says standing and opening his omni-tool. Ah cool! An omni-tool! I need to get me one of those! Wait a minute… Oh shit! No! I can't let him call an ambulance! They'll find out I'm unregistered and… I don't know… deport me or something!

"Uh! No need for an ambulance!" I say hastily, the turian looks down at me confused. "I'm fine! See!"

I get a good grip on the metal stuck in my shoulder and slowly pull it out. A few people in the crowd gasp and grimace in disgust. The turian just stares at me wide eyed. I drop the metal and fight back a scream of pain. I hop up to my feet and hurry off before anybody can stop me, clutching at my shoulder the whole way.

I hide in an alleyway and take my backpack off of my back. I open it and examine the contents. My shotgun and my machine gun are soaking wet, as is everything else in my backpack. I take each gun out and shake the water out of them and replace them in my backpack.

I pull one of the three medkits I have from inside my backpack and open it. It's half full of water, but that shouldn't be a problem. I withdraw one of the three long thin syringes filled with green fluid from the medkit and drop the medkit into my backpack. I grimace as I inject myself with the serum. It's never a pleasant experience, getting my cells accelerated, but it works.

I look down at my gaping shoulder wound and watch as it heals as does the wound in my chest from the knife that splicer tried to stab me with. The wounds close after a few seconds and I can feel the burning sensation from the serum wear off. I sigh and drop down to the ground. I use my tongue and find that the tooth that the splicers knocked out of my head has regrown also.

Okay. Let's back track a little here. I'm on the Presidium on the Citadel. I know this because I recognize the area from Mass Effect 1. According to memory I'm somewhere near the Consort's place. Alright… that's… FUCKING CRAZY! Dammit Rob! Now is not a time to panic! All I need is a plan… a plan… a plan… Fuck! Can't think of one! Okay, just calm down and think! Okay… well to have a plan you need background information… so… I'm in the Mass Effect Universe. My extensive knowledge of the subject will help quite a bit I think. Huh, funny. I can remember almost everything about the game even though I haven't touched a video game controller in over six years. Okay that's kind of all the background information I need… so time to formulate a plan.

Hm… alright since I'm in the Mass Effect universe, my first thought is to join Shepard's crew… But wait… I don't know when I am in the Mass Effect universe, for all I know I could have missed him… or her. I know that the best time to join Shepard's crew would be when he or she is grounded on the Citadel following the Eden Prime attack during the events of Mass Effect 1. If so then I have to find a way to include myself in some way to the events leading to Tali's attempted murder… First of all I need to find what year it is…

I see a human with dark hair walk by the alley; I reach out and grab his shirt. "Hey! Buddy…"

"Ah! Don't hurt me!" The human says in fear.

I release his shirt. "What? No, I just…"

"Here! Just take it! Take it all!" The guy says throwing a blue keycard into my face and running away. I bend down and pick up the keycard. A small black display on it lights up and reads: 500 credits

"Sweet," I say pocketing the keycard. I walk back into the alley and sit down next to my backpack. Well now I have money. That's better that nothing I suppose. Ugh! Damn I'm hungry… I need some food…

"Excuse me?" I hear a timid voice say from nearby.

I turn my head and see the quarian woman from before standing at the mouth of the alleyway. She looks nervous. And sort of attractive. Did I really just think that? Well sure! I've always liked quarians, they have a certain… mystique to them. Uh oh, hope I didn't say that out loud.

"I was just wondering if you were alright…" the quarian says taking a few tiny steps into the alley. Good, looks like I didn't say that out loud, my inner monologue worked for once. I push myself off of the ground and walk closer to her so that she doesn't need to go into the creepy alleyway.

"I'm fine." I say as I reach her.

"Yeah but you were bleeding pretty badly…" She looks down at my chest and points at my shoulder confused. "Wait. Where did your wound go?"

"What wound?" I say playing dumb.

"You had a piece of metal stuck in your shoulder. It's over there right now, and there's blood all over your shirt and a big hole in it, don't play dumb."

Uh oh, she saw through my ruse. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She stares at me for a second before shaking her head, "Whatever."

She turns to leave.

"Wait!" I shout as I grab her shoulder and turn her around.

She takes on a slightly defensive pose and I throw my hands up defensively as well, "Sorry! I just wanted to ask you something!" She lowers her fists and tilts her head to the side slightly waiting for me to continue. "What's the day and year?"

She stares at me for a few seconds confused. Damn I must sound like an idiot.

Suddenly she nods understandingly, "Oh you must be new to the Citadel! I'm pretty new myself so I know the feeling."

I just nod along and she opens her omni-tool, "It's 12-20-2181."

Wow… first 50 years into the past, now 200 years into the future… Wait, the attack on Eden Prime happens in 2183.

Dammit! I'm at least two years behind! I need to find a way to sustain myself for two years? It's not like in Rapture, all I needed to do was wander around and I could find food and water. Here I have to… pay for stuff. Gonna need money then… and more than I can get from "mugging" people.

"What?" the quarian asks confused.

"Damned inner monologue!" I say out loud. "Shit! I did it again! And again!"

And again! There we go… While my inner monologue sustains itself, I'll take the time to think… Okay, plan of action: I need money, first and foremost. I guess I could sell my Tommy gun and my shotgun to like… an antiques dealer or something. Depending on how much I get from selling my stuff I should try and get a place to stay and some food… I definitely want me one of those omni-tools! Oh! And a haircut… definitely a haircut.

I start fiddling with my matted hair unconsciously.

The quarian looks at me confused again. Stupid inner monologue! Stop stroking your hair! I put my arm at my side quickly. I must look like a psychopath… She shakes her head and turns to leave again. A realization dawns on me.

"Hey! Wait!" I call after her as she walks away.

"What?" She asks annoyed.

"I just got to the Citadel and I need somebody to show me around. I can pay you for the help." That's a dirty lie…

She stares at me again for a few seconds. Damned quarians! I have to gauge her reaction off of her body language? I've never been good at that!

She shrugs and says, "Okay, what do you need to find?"

I sigh in relief, "Thanks a lot. I need to find three places. First, an antiques dealer. Second, an omni-tool store. Third, a hair salon."

"Alright, I don't know where to find the antiques dealer or the salon, but I know where we can find out."

"Where?"

"We can ask Avina," she says as she walks up to a small pedestal. Oh yeah! Avina! A purple asari VI appears over the pedestal. Kind of reminds me of Cortana from Halo.

"_How may I assist you?"_ Avina asks.

"Where can we find an antiques dealer?" the quarian asks. A few people give me weird looks as we stand near the terminal. Probably because I'm dressed strangely and I have thick shaggy hair.

"_There are only four antiques dealers on the Citadel. One deals in turian antiques. Another in asari. Another in salarian. And another in human."_

"Where is the human one?" I say stepping forward.

"_Human Antiquities can be found in the Market District of the Zakera ward."_

"Thank you," I say.

"We can take a cab," the quarian says walking over to a terminal with a few of those boss Mass Effect flying cars sitting behind it.

The quarian turns to me, "A trip to the Zakera ward is 30 credits."

I look at her for a few seconds before realizing what she means. I reach into my pocket and withdraw the credit chit I got from that guy and hand it to her.

"Wow, 500 credits?" she says examining the card.

"Uh yeah," I say. Hope that guy doesn't report me to C-Sec.

She scans the card on the terminal and one of the cars' door opens. She tosses the card back to me, which I fumble to catch, and enters the car.

"You coming?" she says impatiently.

I enter the car and close the door. Apparently the system is automated and the car takes off without either of us doing anything.

After a few awkward seconds of silence I say, "Uh thanks for helping me out."

She looks at me for a few seconds before returning her view to the window, "I'm doing it for the cash…"

"Ah…" I say. A few more seconds pass and I extend a hand to her. "I'm Robert Jackson by the way, but you can call me Rob."

"Alright, Jackson," she says without looking at me or returning my hand shake. I sigh and return my hand to my lap.

She looks at me and extends her hand, "Nata' Acie nar Rayya."

What? Rayya? Well, well… small world… or galaxy. I return her handshake and smile as well. She recoils at my smile and I frown.

"What?" I ask confused.

"Your smile. All of the humans I've met so far have yellowed teeth. Yours are white." She says astonished.

"Really?" I say, more confused about the fact that all the humans she's met so far have yellow teeth. My teeth don't need to be cared for thanks to a gene tonic I have and you'd think the field of dentistry would have improved in the last 200 years. "Where did you meet these humans?"

"At the shelter…" She starts. She stops herself after she mentions the shelter. I get it. She's got no money that's why she's helping me. Too bad.

"You're Pilgrimage isn't going to well is it?" I blurt out. Instantly afterwards I regretted saying that. How am I going to lie my way through this?

"What? How do you know about quarian Pilgrimages?" She asks perplexed.

"Uh… I've met a few quarians before?" Ah hell that's not a good lie.

"Really? What were their names?"

Fuck… "They're uh… I don't like to talk about it?"

"Oh, I understand."

That was too close. I got to be careful about what I say.

After a few seconds of silence Nata looks at me. "So, how long have you been on the Citadel?"

I wonder how I should respond to this… "Uh… not long… A few hours actually."

Nata nods. "Where are you from?"

Oh shit… "Uh… Earth?"

She nods again. "Not many people come to the Citadel from Earth. Why did you come?"

I can finally say something honest. "It wasn't really my choice. But it's far better here than it ever was where I came from."

"Where on Earth did you come from?"

Ah dammit… Stop asking questions! "Uh… Just some beat up old cesspool of a city."

"Detroit?"

"What the? How do you know about Detroit?"

"Not now. We're here." Nata says.

The cab touches down at another station. I can see the large antiquities shop a short distance away. Wow, that was fast. The travel system here is pretty efficient. And this place is freaking beautiful. I can't believe I'm actually on the Citadel; it's like a dream come true.

Well sort of. I mean I can't say that I'm sad about leaving Rapture, but I am going to miss the Little Sisters, among other things. Like the freedom to pee wherever I want. I'm going to have to learn to control myself again.

We walk into the antiques dealer where an elderly man stands behind a glass counter reading a book. There's a terminal next to him, just like in every other shop and I can't see any antiques on any shelves or anything, which is odd. Come to think of it, how are things dispensed from those terminals in Mass Effect 2?

"Hello," The elderly man says, "How may I help you?"

"Oh," I say walking up to the elderly man taking my backpack off as I walk, "I have some antiques you may be interested in."

"Really?" The old man says, his interest piqued.

I open my backpack, which is now mostly dry and pull out my shotgun and tommy gun and place them on the counter. The old man adjusts his glasses and picks up my shotgun examining it.

"My word! This is superb!" he says amazed, "This is a Remington 20 gauge shotgun correct?"

I nod even though I have no idea if it is or not.

"And it appears to be custom built due to the ornate design of the weapon. These were very popular weapons in the late 20th and early 21st centuries."

"Yes," I say pointing to the gun, "These particular guns are from around 1962. And they still work properly."

"Amazing! And in such good condition too! 200 years and still operable…"

The old man puts down my shotgun carefully and picks up my tommy gun, "And this is a Thompson submachine gun. Appears to be custom built as well… with ammunition inside?"

"I'll throw in the ammunition for free if you can make me a deal now."

"Oh wow… okay let's see… well I'll give you… 210,000 for the shotgun and... 215,000 for the Thompson."

"Deal!" I say nodding. That turned out better than I had hoped. I look at Nata who is staring at the guns greedily. I feel kind of guilty about doing this and I feel a little sorry for her. Maybe I should have asked her to wait outside. The old man walks out of a door behind the counter that I didn't notice and vanishes from sight. "Well that went pretty well wouldn't you say?"

"That's a lot of money…" Nata says still staring at the guns, "How much are you paying me?"

I chuckle and feign deep thought, "Hm… how about 15,000?"

"Fift—" She chokes on the word like it's too large of a sum to be put into a word, "15,000?"

"Yep." I smile again. "Remember though, your end of the deal isn't done yet, you still have to help me get an omni-tool and a haircut."

She nods vigorously, "Yeah sure! Anything!"

I laugh and the old man returns with a silver credit chit in his hands, "Here you go sir. Please, come back again!"

I take the chit and check the number on it: 450,000. Wait that's 25,000 over priced…

I sigh and hand the chit back to him, "You got the price on it wrong, we agreed on 425,000 not 450,000."

He looks at the chit for a second before scratching his head and walking back into the back room.

"You could've kept that 25,000," Nata said.

I look at her with a smirk, "Yeah I could've. But I wanted to see the look on your face when I gave it back."

She crosses her arms. Damn… bad joke.

"Uh… or the look on your… mask…?"

Nice recovery. I'm such an idiot…

The old man reenters the room with the silver chit in his hands. He hands it to me with a friendly smile, "Thank you. Please come back."

I check the price on the chit. It's right. I nod to the old man and walk out of the store with Nata. We walk up to the cab station and I hand her the chit from the dark haired guy. She scans it and tries to hand it back to me but I push her hand back.

"Go ahead and keep that one. Think of it as a bonus."

She stares at the chit and nods. She enters the car and I follow. I settle myself into my seat and the cab takes off.

"Where're we headed?" I ask turning to Nata.

"It's about 11, so I was thinking we could go get something to eat. My treat."

I chuckle. "Alright, what did you have in mind? I doubt I would like anything you eat so…"

She turns to me and says with a rather excited tone, "Well actually there's this really nice quarian restaurant on the Teyseri Ward that I've wanted to try since I got here. It's really expensive but the food is supposedly great!"

"That sounds… wait… I'm not allowed in there am I?"

She shakes her head. "Uh no. But we can stop somewhere after."

I sigh. "Wow… alright."

She giggles excitedly. I feel like I'm spoiling her.

The cab lands on the Teyseri Ward and Nata drags me out and toward the quarian restaurant.

She stops in front. "Wait here. I'll be back as soon as I can."

She runs inside and I am left alone outside. Well now at least I have some time to ponder on my new existence.

I take a seat on the ground and lean my head against the wall. I take a deep breath.

This is just… surreal. Wow… Mass Effect… That's… this isn't real.

Funny… this is exactly how I reacted when I had a moment to myself in Rapture. I was convinced that it wasn't real. Things are definitely better here than they were in Rapture, for sure, but I never wanted this. Sure it seemed cool back when I used to read fan fiction but who would want this? I lost everything, all my friends, all my family, now I've got nothing. Even the things I made for myself in Rapture I lost that too. My Little Sisters, my shanty house. Everything. I've lost everything. Twice. Am I really capable of making a life for myself again here? Just so I can lose it again? That doesn't matter

Well here I am now. Rapture happened, now this is happening. The only thing I can do now is see what happens. That and try and get Shepard to recruit me somehow. Hopefully nothing too crazy will happen but knowing me that's extremely unlikely.

I feel something kick my leg hard. I yelp and look up at the… Krogan walk by.

"Watch it, human."

Holy mother of… Krogan are fucking huge! They're definitely not as tall as turians, but they definitely have a certain presence to them that turians don't have. I watch the krogan walk away. So cool… I wish my brother was here, he would love to meet a krogan.

A group of salarians walks by. I shiver. They're kind of creepy in person. Those big eyes… staring… I shiver again. A hanar slithers by carrying a brief case in one tentacle. Hanar were my favorite aliens to talk to next to next to elcor. Elcor are hilarious! Nervously: Shepard, I want you to know, that this is my first time…

I smile and chuckle at the thought. Wow, six years and I still remember that YouTube video. Still cracks me up.

I sigh. This is my life now. The third life I've had in six years. I think I'm going to like it here. And this time, I'm here to stay. And even if I have to lose it all again, I'll be damned if I'm leaving without a fight.

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><p><strong>1:21 PM December 20, 2181 <strong>

"So, how's it look?" I ask turning my head side to side for Nata to get a good look at my new haircut.

"A lot better than before. When I first saw you I thought you were another bum trying to bathe in the lake or something. Now you just look like a thug."

I laugh good and loud at that. I turn to the asari stylist and transfer payment using my new omni-tool. She smiles at the amount and waves good-bye to me and Nata.

"Strange that an asari would work at a hair salon. I mean humans are among the only species that actually grow any hair." I say as I run a hand through my short neat mohawk. I had the stylist cut a thin strip out of the back so that it would look sort of like Johnny's haircut from Metal Gear Solid 4 just like before Rapture. I rub my chin as well, savoring the feel of my skin. I decided to shave it clean, just looks neater that way.

"Well it looks like it's time for us to part ways," I say opening my omni-tool and transferring 15,000 credits to Nata. "Thanks for your help."

"Are you sure there isn't anything else I can help you with?" she says absently as she stares at her omni-tool.

"Well… actually, I don't have anywhere to live… so you weren't too far off with your earlier assumption that I was a bum. But now I'm a rich bum and I need a place to live." She laughs a little and thinks for a second.

"I think I can help you out. Come on."

We start walking toward the cars again. A pair of tough looking turians are leaning against a wall nearby. I hear heavy footsteps behind me and I see a krogan walking towards us quickly. I have a bad feeling about this one.

The turians nod at each other and block our path.

"Hey friend," one turian with a large scar on his face says, "Having a nice night?"

The krogan stops behind us and I can feel his hot breath on the back of my head. The group towers over me but I don't feel very intimidated. I feel like I can use some plasmids if I have too.

"Your girl here is pretty," the other turian, this one deep blue with a red stripe painted over his nose, says as he runs a hand over Nata shoulder. She shivers slightly. Son of a…

"Keep your claws off her," I say firmly.

"We will if you give us your stuff," the krogan behind me says.

"Let her go," I say strongly.

The scarred turian gives his equivalent of a smile. He looks over at the blue one and nods at him. The blue turian scowls but lowers his hand after caressing Nata's hip. Nata runs off around the corner.

"Now hand over your stuff," the blue turian says, "We're nice guys, we let your girl go. Now it's only polite to be nice back, right?"

He reaches into his pocket and brandishes a knife. I see the scarred turian has a pistol on his hip. I doubt the krogan is armed, though I don't think he needs to be. I smirk and raise my hands above my head.

"You know, how about you give me your stuff?" I say with a smile.

The group starts laughing loudly. I grimace in pain and discomfort as my Insect Swarm plasmid activates. Patches of skin on my body turn black and small holes begin to develop. The group's laughing fades as they see what is happening to my appearance.

Small wasp-like insects begin to crawl out of the holes in my flesh much to the terror of the blue turian. I throw my arms out to the sides and insects quickly pour out of the holes in my skin and begin to attack the muggers. They scream in a mix of pain, terror and panic as they begin to run around in circles swinging their arms around.

All except for the krogan who ignores the bugs and picks me up by grabbing my whole head in his hand. I grasp his hand and cry out as pressure begins to build on my skull.

The krogan laughs and squeezes my head harder, "I don't know what the fuck you are. But you're about to die."

I activate my Winter's Blast plasmid and my hands and arms erupt with icicles. I use it to freeze the krogan's hand. He howls in pain and terror and I pull my head out of his grasp, breaking his fingers off of his hand in the process.

I spin around and activate my Incinerate plasmid. The veins in my body glow bright red and my arms painfully ignite with fire. I ignore it and snap my flaming fingers at the krogan. He bursts into flame and begins to scream and writhe in terror.

I spin around and face the two turians who are still alive but dazed from the insects. I activate my Winter's Blast again and icicles burst from the burnt flesh on my arm. I use my Aero Dash plasmid and traverse the 9 meters distance to the scarred turian in a fraction of a second, throwing my fist into his face. Thin and long icicles pierce his flesh and travel deep into his skull, killing him instantly. The blue turian is frozen in place in terror. Shock and awe.

I make a gun with my hand and aim my fingers at the ground near his feet. A small whirlwind spins around my fingers as I activate my Cyclone Trap plasmid. I drop a trap at his feet and he flies 30 meters into the air, far above the sealed atmosphere on the Wards. He flies away toward another Ward and I turn my focus to the krogan again who is on the ground burned terribly but still alive. He quivers and gasps in pain and tries to crawl away.

I look at him in pity and retrieve the pistol from the dead scarred turian. I walk over to the krogan and aim the pistol at his head. I fire and place the pistol in my discarded backpack.

I look at my arm, an emulation to my entire body, which has third degree burns on it, small blackened holes where the insects dug their way out of my flesh, as well as small bleeding holes with ice ringed around it. Why do plasmids hurt so damn much?

"Shit," I say grimacing as I retrieve another medkit stim from my backpack. I am about to inject myself but I pause when I hear a small gasp.

I look up and see Nata standing nearby staring at me. I inject myself without looking away and I feel the burning sensation spread through my body as my wounds heal. She walks up to me and looks at the bodies of the krogan and the turian. This isn't going to go well…

"What are you?" she says incredulously.

I smile, "I'm not really sure anymore."

Nata is silent for a moment before walking up to the cab terminal and scanning the credit chit I gave her.

"Shall we go?" she asks.

I look at her surprised, "You're not scared or angry or anything?"

"We'll talk on the trip to the residential district." She responds simply patting the seat next to her.

I stare for a few seconds, before a smile grows on my face and I enter the cab.


	3. Chapter 3 Secret Keeper

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the Bioshock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or 2K games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: It's about 1 in the morning right now, and i figured, what the hell? It's Tuesday right? So I'm posting this! Anyways i just wanted to say a couple of things. I love all the questions you guys are asking, that means I'm writing this thing right. Everything you're curious about, everything that seems vague, obscure, or confusing will make sense later on in the story. More specifically the sequel. Which is already underway. I also just wanted to mention that all these author's notes are added prior to posting the chapter in the doc manager, so in other words, spell check doesn't exist so please excuse errors.**

**Thanks! Please review this chapter and stay beautiful my friends!**

**Love**

**Mockingbird79**

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><p>"<strong>Happiness is a choice."<strong>

**~Barry Neil Kaufman~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 3: Secret Keeper<strong>

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><p><strong>1:57 PM 20 December, 2181<strong>

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><p>The cab ride has been pretty quiet so far. It's a little uncomfortable. I don't really know what to say. I was fully expecting her to say something… What the fuck, I'll start…<p>

"So, uh… How do you know your way around the Citadel so well?"

"You can shoot fire out of your hands?" Nata suddenly screams. I jump shocked and prepare myself for any physical abuse.

"Oh and that's not all!" She continues, clearly flipping out or something, "You can freeze things! Teleport! Shoot wind out of your hands! And make bugs come out of your body! Keelah!"

I don't really want to say something but I feel I should say something… anything… "Uh… I don't actually teleport, I can just briefly move really fast."

"Whatever, but how can you do these things?"

"It's kind of a long story, you sure you want to hear it?"

She nods quickly and fixes her eyes on me.

"Okay, well I've mutated my genetic structure so that I can do that stuff. I do that with this special goo called ADAM. ADAM acts kind of like a weird stem cell that mutates itself into your DNA. With a little bit of influence, the ADAM can mutate your genes into something else. That's how I can shoot fire out of my hands, among other things.

"For most people, ADAM introduction is extremely painful and dangerous because it replaces cells in your body with ADAM cells that then copy your genetic structure, with some modifications already in the cells. Because of this, using ADAM mutates your body into a grotesque creature that can hardly be called human, not to mention the psychological effects that it has. Most people go crazy because of it, and they also begin to crave ADAM like a drug. I however have a special, completely unique, genetic condition that actually affects ADAM differently. Instead of the extremely painful fast way that most people experience, where their genetic structure is rewritten right on the spot, when I introduce ADAM into my body my cells actually accept the ADAM into their nuclei and they change themselves over a period of time. As a result my powers take time to develop, but they improve over time as well. Most people would have to buy different upgrades to their powers and rewrite their genes again to get them to improve, for me it just takes time to get them to improve. In time I'll be even more powerful than I am now. As far as I know I am the only person with this condition."

Nata looks away clearly astounded. "How did you find that out?"

"A geneticist named Tenenbaum performed tests on me." I say recalling the rather invasive tests.

Nata looks back at me. "So how did you come to get this… ADAM?"

Oh shit… uh… come on think of a lie! "Uh… I… uh… uh…"

Nata stares at me expectantly. Damn… "I… got captured and sent to a special training facility that kind of got… destroyed just before I left."

Nata shakes her head. "That's bullshit but whatever I don't care about that. What about those powers, what are they called?"

Okay she didn't buy my lie but she doesn't care so that's good. "The powers I use are called plasmids. I can turn them on or off like a light switch. But there are a lot of drawbacks to plasmids. One is that most are extremely uncomfortable or even painful. The fire one for instance, it's called Incinerate. When I activate the plasmid, my sweat glands produce a chemical that is highly flammable and will ignite at around 71 degrees Celsius. The chemical is recognized as foreign in my body, and I develop an extremely high fever as my body reacts to it. When I snap my fingers, I create just enough heat from the friction to ignite the chemical and create a heat blast that is so hot that it will ignite whatever it hits on fire. I do actually heal pretty quickly because the plasmid isn't totally useless, but it takes a little too long, about thirty minutes to heal completely, for my personal preference and it's really uncomfortable walking around with burns all over me."

She nods understandingly and I assume that she is grimacing in disgust under her mask. I smile.

"That's not all though. I can also use my Winter's Blast plasmid, to freeze my opponents. When I activate it, my body temperature literally reverses, going from the typical 97 degrees Fahrenheit to -97 degrees Fahrenheit. The intense cold that I emit freezes the water in the air around me which is why I become coated in ice. When I activate it, these 'nodes' eject out of my body that collect water molecules from the air. I use the nodes to 'shoot' super cold water at a target and when it strikes a target it's so cold that it freezes the water molecules around my target, freezing them in place. The nodes look sort of like icicles when they come out. The problem is that they literally pierce through my skin and it's very painful.

"That's not the worst one though. The most excruciating one is the Insect Swarm one. Right now, there are a few insect queens fused with my nervous system somewhere in my body. When I activate my plasmid, the queens rapidly reproduce, creating hundreds of wasp-like insects. The insects are very poisonous and aggressive and since they are fused mentally with the queens, who are fused with my nervous system, I have a minor control over them. The issue is that they are buried deep in my body when I start making them, and they have to literally dig their way out of my body. They use their venom to kill the flesh in their path, which is why my skin turns black where they come out."

"That's disgusting! Wouldn't that kill you?" Nata says sounding absolutely horrified.

I chuckle. Oh how cute. "Because I think that they know that the queens can only survive if I'm alive. They wouldn't kill me trying to get out. Also I am immune to their venom so it won't kill me if some gets into my blood stream."

Nata shakes her head in disbelief, "This is impossible. Why haven't I heard about this ADAM stuff before?"

"I don't know," I say telling the complete truth. I have absolutely no idea why ADAM is still an unknown substance… Then again, knowing Cerberus and the Illusive Man they probably have gas stations of the stuff. I'll have to look this up later.

Nata is clearly dissatisfied with my response but she seems to believe that I don't know.

After a short silence she fixes her gaze on me again, "So, is there anything else you can do?"

"Lots of stuff!" I say excitedly.

I lift my left arm and clench my fist. I activate my Electro Bolt plasmid and open my hand as it finishes charging. The veins in my body glow bright blue and bolts of electricity arc in between my fingers. The light from my body illuminates the cabin of the cab.

"Keelah!" Nata exclaims fearfully. "You look so weird!"

"Really?" I say, my voice cracked with discomfort from the tingly sensation in my body, "How so?"

"Well, you're glowing for one! I can see all of the veins in your body because they're glowing!"

"Nah that's not all of them," I say sighing as I deactivate my plasmid, "If I use my Rescue plasmid, then you'd see all the veins in my body."

"Rescue? What's that one do?"

"I use it to…" I suddenly remember all of the Little Sisters I rescued. Really it was them that kept me sane all of those years in Rapture. Now I'll never see them again... "I don't have a use for it anymore…"

Nata detects the melancholy and drops that topic, "Okay, is there anything else you can do?"

I welcome the distraction and raise my arm again. I activate my Telekinesis plasmid and the air around my arm ripples with energy.

"This is my Telekinesis plasmid," I say with intense focus, grinding my teeth together from the immense headache that it causes. "I can use it to throw things with my mind. Basically like biotics."

My body feels suddenly drained and my plasmid suddenly stops working.

Dammit! Out of EVE!

"EVE?"

Fucking inner monologue… "It's the stuff that powers my plasmids. It's a modified version of ADAM. If I have no EVE in my body then I can't use my plasmids. My body naturally restores it over time, but I usually do it by injecting it straight into myself. I don't have any more though. I could make more if I had ADAM."

"How do you make EVE?" Nata says interested.

"It's a lot of chemistry... it involves a lot of enzyme splicing and rubbing alcohol I don't want to get into it…"

"Where can you get ADAM?"

"It's only found in a particular species of Earth sea slug. Though for all I know they may be extinct by now."

"So you'll just have to wait for your EVE to come back right?" Nata pauses and thinks for a moment, "What does ADAM look like?"

"Hm? Oh it's red and it glows, sort of like glowing human blood." I answer her question absently. My mind is too cluttered with how things have changed so quickly.

"This may sound like a stretch, but I once found a Keeper that had been caught in the crossfire of a gang war and was shot and killed. After the conflict disbanded I checked the bodies for useful salvage and the Keeper's blood was glowing. Except Keeper blood is bright green."

"What?" I say astonished. That can't be… "I can't focus on that now. For now I need a crib."

"Crib?"

"Yeah. It's slang for a place to live where I come from."

"What's slang?"

…

"Uh… Never mind."

Nata shakes her head annoyed and I smile. She points out of the window. "There, that's the person I told you about."

I look out the window as the cab slowly descends. There's a short and skinny turian standing nearby with a clipboard in his hands. Or at least short and skinny by turian standards He waves excitedly as the cab touches down. Nata runs out of the cab and gives the turian a hug. I approach curious. That's interesting, he almost looks like a…

"Hi! My name is Maryn. It's a pleasure to meet you!" Holy crap, that's a female turian. There are some pretty distinct differences that I notice. Her voice for one is feminine with that usual turian flange. Then there are her physical features. I suppose I should comment on what Garrus would be interested in. Her fringe is much shorter. And her waist looks… supportive?

"Uh hi, my name is Rob," I say as I shake her hand.

"Nata told me that you're looking for a place to stay. Well I can show you some available dwellings if you'd like…"

"Yeah that sounds fine." I respond, not really interested in what she… SHE… is saying.

"Alright, well if you'll just follow me…"

That's something BioWare got wrong. Female turians aren't invisible.

* * *

><p><strong>5:33 PM December 24, 2181<strong>

Alright you little bastard. Damn Keeper won't keep still. I finally get a good vein on the squirmy Keeper and fill my hypo with his blood. His blood glows bright green in my hypo.

"Success!" I say out loud, holding the hypo in the air. This is the first successful sample I've collected since first trying two days ago. Keepers are a lot more fidgety than BioWare made them out to be.

"Hey! What are you doing?" I hear a flanged voice say from behind me.

Oh shit! The fuzz! I start running off and I hear the C-Sec officer giving chase. Good thing I have that Sports Boost tonic or I'd be in hand cuffs right now. I can hear the officer's protesting voice grow quieter as I run farther and farther from him. I round a corner into an alleyway and duck behind a pile of boxes.

After a short time I see the turian officer run by. I peek out after him and see him looking around and asking people something. He looks familiar… Oh shit… That's Garrus! Garrus Vakarian! Garrus was chasing me! Garrus was my favorite companion next to Tali, and Wrex, and Kaiden… Not Ashley or Liara. I really hated both of them. Especially Liara. I loathe Liara…

After he is gone I go incognito and walk out Assassin's Creed style. Hidden in plain sight. I walk the short distance to my apartment building and enter my room on the seventh floor. One thing BioWare got right was the speed at which elevators travel. It's almost torture having to listen to elevator music for so long. Even worse? When there's somebody else in the elevator. Oh, I'm so awkward!

I got a pretty good deal for such a nice place, and thankfully the landlord wasn't much of a racist.

Its main room takes up most of the place but that's fine with me. The main room has one of those kitchens that acts like a separate room but is too lazy to have a wall so it just uses a counter instead. It also has a large TV built into the wall that came with the apartment and a large couch in front of the TV that I recently bought along with a few armchairs and a coffee table. There's also enough space for a small dining table and a punching bag. The back wall is a huge window that looks out on the Citadel. My place doesn't have a balcony, only the lower floors do. This is because after about 7 meters off the ground the atmosphere kind of doesn't exist on the wards.

The only other rooms are a small hall that leads to my master bedroom, a guest bedroom, and a bathroom. I walk down the hallway and into my bedroom. Inside there's a large queen sized bed that I bought yesterday and a desk that's built into the wall. I put the hypo with the Keeper blood on the desk and sit down at my chair.

The blood looks like ADAM, but I can't be sure just yet. I'll have to test it with some of my own cells to see if it has the same effect ADAM would have. This is a little test Tenenbaum showed me.

I pluck a hair off of my head and place it in a small tray on my desk. I then add a drop of the Keeper blood and watch what happens. The hair begins to float in the drop of blood. The blood soon starts sprouting hairs however and I smile at the result. No doubt about it. This is ADAM. How the hell is it in Keepers? Hell if I know, aand I don't really care! This means I have a steady supply of EVE and I can make some new tonics!

I take a beaker from the chemistry kit I bought earlier today. It's for kids sure but it'll do. I dump the contents of my hypo into it and place it over a small burner. I add an enzyme sample from my own DNA and a little distilled water. The green Adam slowly begins to change to a purplish color. This is going to take a while, but I'll get a few hypos of EVE out of it.

I hear a knock at the front door and I go to answer it.

"Who is it?" I say knowing full well who it is.

"It's me."

"Door's open." I say turning and walking over to my couch.

"How'd it go?" Nata says as she enters carrying a shopping bag.

"Got it. You were right. It's ADAM." I say absently as I turn on the TV.

"I knew it. So," Nata says eyeing my apartment, "you've fixed the place up real nice."

"Thanks just bought some furniture yesterday." This is a dumb show. I hate Salarian shows, always plugging something or trying to get me to join something. Plus they talk way too fast for me to pick up on anything.

Nata drops down on the couch next to me and puts the bag in her lap.

"What's that?" I ask gesturing to the bag.

"Just some anti-biotics and stuff."

I look at her outraged. "Are those guys still messing with you at the shelter?"

"Yeah! They took my mask off last night and I didn't get it back on till this morning! I don't feel too bad yet but I know I'll get way worse!"

I shake my head in anger, "Why don't you let me beat them up and leave them tied up under a bridge or something?"

Nata sighs. "It's definitely tempting, but we both know I'll get in trouble with C-Sec and you'll get found out and we'll both get deported off the Citadel."

I roll my eyes and she laughs a little, a thought comes to my mind, "Hey have you been able to find a place yet?"

Nata sighs sadly, "No. Maryn can't find me any decent place that is cheap and accepts quarians."

"This building accepts quarians."

"Yeah, but it's way too expensive. Your apartment was 200,000 credits! The 15,000 you gave me won't cut it."

"How about you move in here?"

"What?" she reels back in surprise, "No, I couldn't."

"Come on, Nata," I say tiredly, it's really hard to get her to accept something, "This is a nice place and there's plenty of room! I'm not even using that spare one, besides you're the only person I know on the Citadel and I get pretty lonely here at night."

She looks at me and I realize how that must've sounded, "Oh shit, no I mean I don't like being alone at night. Dammit! I mean it's… scary… I'm afraid of the dark okay!"

Nata laughs and shakes her head. "I… I don't know… Will I have to check your closet for monsters?"

"No promises."

Nata laughs. "Well… Alright I'll move in. Just so you don't get lonely here. I swear humans are so strange."

I frown. "How do you mean?"

She shrugs. "They're just… they're so… I don't know… Inconsistent!"

"Inconsistent?"

"Yes! Like… Compare you to those guys at the shelter! You're so completely different! Humans are so hard to figure out! I'd pick quarians for social interaction any day."

"You probably shouldn't move in here then." I say sarcastically. "Seeing as how I'm weird and all."

Nata rolls her eyes. "Quit mixing up my words. I'm just saying humans make no sense."

"Thanks."

"No, Keelah! See! I can't tell if you're angry, sarcastic, thankful or whatever!" Nata says exasperatedly.

"You think I'm hard to read? I don't have your facial expressions to work off of! How am I supposed to tell if you're pissed at me? I have to work off of your body language… at least it gives me a reason to stare at those hips." I say playfully. Was that too flirty? I tried to make it sound as sarcastic as possible.

She slaps my shoulder with the back of her hand. "Bosh'tet. I'm going to put this out there now: I'm not interested mister. I'm no xenophile. If you've got a problem with that then tough. If you've been pretending to be my friend up until now to get into my suit then you can go fuck yourself!"

I widen my eyes. Damn… Nata's a badass. "Nata, calm down. I was just joking. I don't like quarians, they're too much hassle. All the danger and what not. I prefer to have ready availability if you know what I'm saying."

"You're gross."

"I meant hugs… You're gross."

We laugh and I give her a high five. We spend the rest of the evening watching a movie about an asari that can see the future. This life beats Rapture by a long shot.

* * *

><p><strong>9:49 PM December 24, 2181<strong>

"You sure?" I ask standing in the doorway of my room.

"Yes! For the last time! I don't want to take your bed while you sleep on that lumpy couch!" Nata says sighing. I hand her a spare blanket and pillow even though I'm not completely sure if she needs them. Wait… lumpy? I spent good money on that couch!

"Alright I'll talk to you tomorrow Nata. I hope you start feeling better." I close my door and walk over to my desk. My backpack sits on top of it near the cooking EVE. I open my backpack and pull out three empty EVE hypos. I slowly fill each one with the finished EVE and I place them on my desk. I'm about to close my backpack but I spot something sitting at the bottom of it.

I pull out the small waterproof lockbox and place it on my desk. Damn, I forgot I had this. I open it and stare at its contents. Inside is a jumble of photos. Each one is a picture with me and one little sister. One picture, the largest, is a picture of me and all 72 little sisters I managed to rescue along with Tenenbaum. She's actually smiling in that picture. I turn the picture over where a short note is written in very neat cursive:

_Jackson,_

_You gave them a future._

_Thank you, _

_Tenenbaum_

I smile and take all of the pictures out of the lockbox and place them on my desk. My eyes widen at the remaining contents of the lockbox. My old cell phone, iPod Touch, and the saints' bracelet and St. Jude's necklace I used to wear.

Shit this takes me back. I wonder if I can find an iPod charger… Doubtful, I don't know if one of those still exists. If I could that'd be damn helpful, I had a Mass Effect 1 and 2 walkthrough app on there. Damn… It seems so impossible that this is real now… Maybe I'm sleeping or something… Maybe I've been sleeping this whole time! This is just some horrible dream! And if pinch myself now, I'll wake up in my bed at home!

Ouch! Nope I'm awake… Bummer...

I sigh and close the lockbox and place it in the drawer in my desk. I had to give up my old life in Rapture and I'm not about to take it back. I gave those Little Sisters a future. I gotta make one for myself now.


	4. Chapter 4 Blood Money

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the Bioshock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or 2K games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>Nothing ventured, nothing gained."<strong>

**~Anonymous~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 4: Blood Money<strong>

**11:27 AM February 8, 2182**

* * *

><p>This isn't good. Nata and I are beginning to make a dent my savings. I'm running out of cash dammit! I'm going to need to find a job soon. Nata says that I should try and become a Fornax magazine model. She really irks me sometimes. I know from reading the codex on Fornax in Mass Effect 2 that Fornax is a full five senses magazine! I don't want people being able to feel my skin, taste my tongue, and smell my genitals without buying me a drink first! Not to mention listening to a recording of me breathing heavily or something.<p>

She also suggested I sell ADAM to people. That would be bad. Really bad. This whole galaxy could become like another Rapture. So that option is out.

My savings are down to about 10,000 credits, which should last a little while but without any work and the inability to cook for myself, I'll be out of money soon and evicted! Let's see… what skills do I have? Well I have plasmids and a surplus of EVE, I only have a pistol and I don't have any armor… so let's see…

Well, the only work that comes to mind for me is some kind of soldier of fortune or hired thug or something. Guess I'll have to find somebody to hire me. Let's see…

Didn't think so… there are no listings for mercenaries online… So I'm fresh out of ideas.

I hear the front door open and somebody enter. That's odd, usually Nata is out for a little while longer. She probably wants to get lunch or something, which is something I hate to do with her. Do you know how many Quarian restaurants are on the Citadel? Two. And I can't go inside either of them or I might contaminate the clean food environment. So I have to stand outside and wait for her to eat. I get up from my desk and walk out to greet her and to tell her that I already ate… fake food.

I freeze in place when I see a curvy brunette human woman standing in front of my window staring out at the Citadel. She's wearing jeans, boots and a leather jacket. Kind of retro for this time period but whatever, I have that retro look too… But I pull it off.

"Uh can I help you?" I say cautiously.

The woman turns around and I see her face. Oh shit. Miranda Lawson from Mass Effect 2 is standing in my living room! She looks just like Yvonne Strakovski from my universe. This is quite surprising… not that she looks like Yvonne Strakovski because I already knew that, but that she's here. Wait what the hell does she want?

"Hello my name is Miranda Lawson." Yep, that proves it. "I am here as a representative for the Cerberus Organization."

Uh oh. "What do you want?"

"We were hoping to employ you as an operative with our organization. You'd be under the direct command of the Illusive Man, our leader."

"I know who he is." I say impatiently. Whoops. Shouldn't have said that.

"How do you know who he is?" Miranda asks surprised.

Gotta think of a lie fast! "Uh… Shadow Broker?" Damn it…

"You paid the Shadow Broker for that information?"

"Uh… No… I uh… work for him?" Well that was a terrible lie. Inner monologue worked hopefully.

"Does he pay with information or something?" Yes! Thank you inner monologue! "Excuse me?"

Damn you inner monologue! "The job has lots of perks."

Miranda decides to change the subject, thankfully, "Well it doesn't matter. Would you be interested in employment with us?"

Hm… Well if I join I'll definitely get paid well. And if I work directly for the Illusive Man then he'll probably guarantee me a place on the Normandy SR-2… But do I really want to do terrorist splinter work? Or perform experiments on innocent people in the name of humanity? I don't even like humanity that much. Matter of fact, I don't think I am really a human anymore… Hang on… maybe that's why they want me!

"Uh sorry but I'll have to decline for now." I say quickly, "I'll need to think on this."

Miranda nods, "Of course I understand. I'll come back in a few weeks."

"Yes sure!" I say trying my best to sound as friendly as possible even though she scares the crap out of me. I usher her quickly to the door. "Just contact me on my omni-tool."

"We'll keep in touch." Miranda says as she exits my apartment and heads toward the elevator.

"Bye!" I call to her before shutting my door. Okay now to check around for listening devices.

* * *

><p><strong>9:42 PM February 18, 2182<strong>

I'm a little nervous about this meeting. I'm here at Dark Star Lounge waiting for one Vaga Kotka, a turian who is supposed to put me in touch with the Shadow Broker. I decided to follow through with that lie I told Miranda so here I am trying to get the Shadow Broker to notice me.

Nata happened to know Chloe Michel, the free clinic doctor on the Wards, who in turn knew Vaga. I've been here for about half an hour now, nursing a Coke. That's right Coca Cola still exists.

The bartender walks up and refills my drink. Before he can walk off I stop him.

"Hey! Do you know Vaga Kotka?"

The turian bartender snorts with laughter and nods his head over at a door with an elcor bouncer in front of it. Huh, never noticed that before.

"Thanks." I say as I drop a tip on the counter. I walk over to the bouncer who stops me.

"Firmly: Name?"

"Uh I'm here to see Vaga Kotka."

"Annoyed: Name?"

"Uh, Robert Jackson."

The elcor looks on a data pad.

"With barely suppressed shock: Sorry sir. Go right on in. The VIP lounge is down the hall to your right."

I nod at him and walk through the door to the poorly lit hallway. That's weird, why am I on the VIP list?

The wall on my left is cut away to reveal a massive room filled with people. Bad techno music is blaring over the speakers and the patrons all seem to enjoy it. I hate the music in Mass Effect. It's all so awful. I should introduce some of the DJs to Deadmau5.

I walk all the way down the hall and towards a pair of double doors on my right. I open them and walk into a small room with a bunch of booths in it and a bar on the back wall. All the tables are occupied and I walk slowly in between them. I have absolutely no idea which one of these guys is Vaga.

"Hey, over here." I hear a sharp flanged voice say from somewhere behind me. I turn around and see a tall turian with silver skin, black face markings, and those weird Saren Arterius side fringe things sitting alone at a booth.

I walk over to him and he motions for me to sit. I do as he says and he reclines in his seat a little.

"Are you Vaga Kotka?" I ask a little confused.

He chuckles like I said something funny, "Guilty as charged."

I frown. This guy is a little weird. "Uh. I need to get in contact with the Shadow Broker."

He sits up, "You're Robert Jackson right?"

I nod. I'm getting a bad vibe from this guy. He's talking like he's flirting with me. And he's got these creepy beady eyes that make it seem like he's looking right through me… He's about to speak but a rather stout krogan, a human man, and a rather unattractive asari approach our table. Each one is holding a small magazine and a pen in each hand.

"Excuse me," The krogan says, "But are you Vaga Kotka?"

Vaga chuckles again. Does this guy laugh every time somebody says his name? "Guilty as charged."

The asari and the human whisper to each other excitedly like school girls, the krogan smiles and holds out the magazine and the pen, "Could you give us your autograph please?"

Vaga widens his mandibles in a turian smile and opens the magazine. I catch a glimpse of the title on the front of the magazine. Fornax? No…

Vaga flips to a page and starts autographing a picture of himself… a naked picture of himself. Great, my Shadow Broker contact is a Fornax model. This is… disturbing.

Vaga hands the magazine back to the krogan and signs the human's and the asari's magazines as well. After they have left he turns back to me.

"Sorry about that, the limelight never stops."

I roll my eyes, "Really it's no trouble. Now can you put me in contact with the Shadow Broker or what?"

"Sure I can. But you have to do something for me first." He says making eye contact with me and smiling.

… Uh… "What?"

"I need you to kill somebody for me."

Oh thank God.

"Who?"

"There's a certain asari, Ricca Ladra who is stealing all of my centerfolds! I need her taken care of. And make it look like an accident. Here's her address…"

* * *

><p><strong>1:42 AM February 19, 2182<strong>

I can't believe I'm doing this. Is this really how I am supposed to get into somebody's house? Seduce them? I really shouldn't turn to a porn star for tactical entry plans.

I round the corner of the hotel hallway towards Ricca's hotel room. I tug at the bottom of my bellboy coat and continue pushing the room service cart along. I had to beat up a bellboy for this disguise. Poor fellow, he's probably scared stiff in that broom closet right now. I go up to her door and knock on it lightly.

This is stupid.

The door opens and my jaw drops a little. Oh shit. She is… uh… hot.

Ricca stands leaning against the doorway with her silk robe open. Her pale blue skin is wet from a bath and she has a small smile on her full lips.

I cover my eyes with a hand. "Room service." Is all I can sputter out, my voice squeaking as I say it.

I hear her giggle, "Come on in."

I drag the cart inside and start pulling stuff off it and placing them on the table as she walks into another room. Two wine glasses. A bottle of asari wine. Ice. Some bizarre asari food. Looks like she is entertaining a guy friend. So much for seducing her, doubt that I could've anyways.

I hear her clear her throat behind me. I turn cautiously and see that, thankfully, her robe is closed. In some ways that might be bad, but at least now I can focus… sort of…

Now all I can see is how beautiful she is. No wonder she's in Fornax and gets all of the centerfold shoots. I'm sure Vaga is considered a very handsome man but he's not really my cup of tea.

I realize that I am staring and look up at the ceiling. I start to leave but I feel her hand on my shoulder.

"I don't have any spare credits on me," Ricca says as she wraps her arms around my torso from behind, "So I'm afraid that I can't tip you. And I'm also afraid that I can't finish that entire bottle of wine by myself. I hate wasting things so why don't you make yourself comfortable while I pour some of the wine?"

I swallow nervously and reluctantly nod. She smiles and drags me to her couch. I sit and look around the apartment for a way to kill her without making it look intentional. I quickly redirect my focus as she turns around with the wine.

Ricca hands me a glass and sits next to me on the couch. She takes a sip and places her glass on the end table next to the couch. Ricca pushes the glass to my mouth and practically forces me to down the entire glass of wine.

That's odd. My vision is getting a little fuzzy… uh oh…

* * *

><p><strong>4:13 AM February 19, 2182<strong>

Am I dead yet? Nope. I'm alive. What happened? I got drugged by the asari temptress. Alright let's see the damage.

I force my heavy eyelids open and look down at myself. Okay, totally naked and tied to the bed. That's not so bad… Nah I'm a liar that sucks. I turn my head and see Ricca asleep on my arm. I have a feeling that I didn't seduce her with my charms. I have a feeling she's so slutty that she would've drugged anybody who came up here and raped them in their drugged induced sleep.

Let's see… How am I going to get out of this one? I look around the room and see the bottle of asari wine in a bunch of pieces on the floor. Looks like somebody threw it at the wall.

I activate my Telekinesis plasmid and pull a sharp shard of glass to my hand. I quickly cut the rope holding my left arm to the bed. I turn over and cut my right arm free and I carefully drag it out from under Ricca's head. She grumbles slightly but doesn't wake. I quickly sit up and cut the bindings around my ankles.

Ha ha! Freedom! Shows you right for trying to take advantage of me in my sleep you harpy siren! Oh wait, she probably already did that huh? I really wish I was cognitive to enjoy that. She didn't have to drug me. Or maybe that's how she likes it…

I shiver.

Anyways, let's see. Accidental death. Accidental death. Come on brain! Remember your Fallout 3 training! Dangling chandelier over the bed? Nope! Stove in the kitchen? No kitchen! Roller skate? Uh, yes that's there for some reason but it's not going to do me any good.

Hm…

Aw nuts to this. I hoist Ricca up into my arms and walk into the bathroom. I drop her into the bathtub and start filling it with warm water. She stirs and starts to open her eyes.

"Shhh…" I say cradling her head in my hand. "Go back to sleep."

She does as told and closes her eyes again, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she is in a bathtub. I walk back into the hallway and walk into the ice room.

Inside there is a vending machine and a community microwave. There's a human man standing in front of the microwave looking fairly tired and wearing a set of silk pajamas. He opens the microwave and places a cup of coffee inside.

I walk up next to him and wait patiently for him to finish. He sighs and looks over his shoulder at me. He looks away but does a double take with his eyes wide. His head then shoots up and his eyes become fixed on the wall.

I frown.

He clears his throat, "Uh… Nice night huh?"

I nod. "Yeah. Nice PJ's."

He glances over at me, "I can't really say the same…"

I frown again and look down at myself. Oh yeah… Naked…

"I'll uh… I'll just get what I came for and go."

I walk up and pull the microwave out of the wall. I open it and hand him his coffee before walking back to Ricca's room.

I walk into the bathroom with the microwave and plug it into an outlet on the wall. The tub is just about full now. I don't need to worry about fingerprints either because they've been burned off by my Incinerate plasmid for years.

I drop the microwave into the tub and Ricca spasms with the electricity that flows in the tub. After the microwave short circuits she just twitches a little. That should do it…

Oh fuck! She's still alive! I can see her breathing! What the hell?

I activate my Electro Bolt plasmid and charge the bathtub with a 40 million volt blast from my palm. Ricca spasms even more violently as the tub lights up with electricity. She goes limp and steam emanates from her skin and the tub. I check her pulse and feel that her heart has stopped.

Damn right. Alright now to give Vaga the good news. Oh one more thing.

I walk into the main room and grab a note pad from a drawer. I walk back into the bathroom and write on the notepad:

_I couldn't take the pressure anymore._

_Ricca_

That outta do it. Ok where'd she throw my clothes…

* * *

><p><strong>8:17 AM February 19, 2182<strong>

I knock on the door of apartment #1 and wait for an answer.

I hear Vaga's flanged voice inside, "Door's open."

I open the door and walk inside. Vaga's place is swanky. He's got pretentious art everywhere, modern furniture, and a bar. Classical music plays over a set of speakers hooked up around the apartment. Damn… I wish I had enough money to buy a penthouse on the Presidium. Vaga must be loaded if he can afford this place. Vaga enters the room from a hallway and lounges in an armchair.

"Vaga," He chuckles, "I took care of Ricca."

"Did you make it look like an accident?"

"No I made it look like a suicide."

"Even better!" Vaga stands and gives me a tight hug that I wasn't prepared for. "I'll put in a good word with the Shadow Broker for you in my next report. He'll probably contact you through an agent sometime later."

"Thanks Vaga," I say pushing myself out of his hug. "If you need help with anything else just let me know."

"Actually I do," Shit… is this how it's going to be now? Helping random people with pointless tasks? "I need a wingman tonight at Eternity. If you help out I'll put you on the permanent VIP list. And drinks are on me.."

Well that's a little surprising, "Uh sure."

"Thanks. Oh and I almost forgot. Here's payment for the job." Vaga hands me a credit chit worth 15,000 credits. Nice!

"I'll see you tonight then," I say heading out the door. I could get used to this… making friends and money, not getting drugged by porn stars and getting raped in my sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>10:19 PM February 19, 2182<strong>

I fall back into the booth with a smile.

"You're not a bad dancer." Vaga says from across the table as he sips at a drink.

"You saw me over there?" I say pointing a thumb over at the dance floor.

Vaga rolls his eyes. "Everyone saw you. You're lucky you weren't bad."

I shrug and take a swig from my drink. I think it's called a batarian booty blaster. Don't know why, but that's what Vaga ordered for me so…

"Vaga this drink isn't drugged or anything is it?" I ask eyeing my drink.

He shakes his head. "No. You think I need to drug women to get them to come home with me?"

I shake my head with a smile. "No, never mind."

Vaga glances over at the DJ. "Hey that music you got them to play is really good! Who'd you say the artist was again?"

"Deadmau5." I say bobbing my head to the beat.

Vaga nods. "So, where you from?"

Uh oh. Personal questions. "Earth."

"Earth is a pretty big place. Anywhere specific?" Vaga says downing the rest of his drink.

"Uh… I'm from… I'm from this city called Rapture." I say as I count the ice cubes in my glass.

"Rapture, huh? Never heard of it." Vaga says a little absently staring at an asari as she walks by.

"Not many people have." I say taking another sip of my drink.

Vaga returns his attention to me. "So what's it like?"

"It's… I don't really like talking about it. It wasn't a really nice place. Hell, it's not even there anymore. I had to give up everything to come here and I'm not about to live in the past, that's just not who I am." I say trying not to reminisce about Rapture and taking a sip from my non-alcoholic beverage.

Vaga nods. "Alright. Well how can you shoot lightning out of your hands and stuff?"

I choke on my drink and start coughing after I'm done. I look at him shocked. "How do you know about that?"

"I work for the Shadow Broker." Vaga says with a shrug. "Also I put a surveillance device in your hair before you left to make sure the job was carried out. And in case you're wondering I caught a live show of your little… encounter with Ricca. I got to say, she's a feisty one, too bad she's dead."

I stare at him for a few seconds before jostling my hair. A small hair clip looking thing with a tiny camera on in falls onto the table. I sigh. "Alright… What do you want to know?"

"Skip the boring stuff. How did you get that power." Vaga says leaning in closer demanding an answer, more than asking for it.

"You want to know how I got it?" I repeat his question like I want to make sure that's what he asked for. I don't want to tell him. The fewer people know that I can do stuff, and the less they know, the better.

He nods. "Yeah. Well first what are they called?"

"They're called plasmids. How about I tell you the story of how I got my first plasmid, because the lightning one wasn't my first one."

Vaga nods.

I sigh. "On second thought… Nah I don't want to tell it. It's not a fun story."

Vaga leans back, disappointment written on his face. "Fine… what story can you tell me?"

"Uh… how about how I lost my virginity?"

"Yeah!"

I smile. "Well it all started when I was 12…"

* * *

><p><strong>3:19 AM February 20, 2182<strong>

Can't sleep. That's pretty usual. I've had trouble sleeping since Rapture. I sit up and get out of bed.

I step out into the hall and move towards the main room as quietly as possible. Once I get there I drop down onto the couch with a sigh.

Alright… let's see what's on TV…

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

Nothing… Nothing… Nothing…

I hear a door open down the hall and I see Nata come out. She doesn't seem surprised that I'm up. She takes a seat next to me on the couch.

"What's on?" She asks.

"Nothing…" I say flipping through channels again.

"How'd that thing go yesterday?" Oh yeah I called her and told her about it…

"Pretty good. Got 15,000 credits."

"Did you actually kill that woman?"

"Uh… yeah. That's kind of all that I know how to do…"

"That's a little sad."

"I know it is… What about you? How are you putting paste on the table?"

"Well I…"

"See? I've been paying for everything. You can't judge me for killing somebody for money when I've paid for everything up until now. I only have 25,000 left in my bank account. I used to have 425,000! Look, I understand that not many places hire quarians, but you have to contribute somehow." I actually was a little angry. She had been getting on my case for doing this stuff, when I've paid for all of her food, furniture, and even some suit repairs?

"Okay! I know… I'll… I'll look for something tomorrow."

Oops. "Sorry. I didn't mean to sound like an ass."

"It's okay. I understand where you're coming from."

That was close. Glad she's so understanding. "What is it that you do all day anyways? You're out all the time…"

"I go out and look for scrap and stuff. I spend a lot of time at the used ship dealer and tech stores. And sometimes I'll go say hi to the people down at the shelter. You know the ones who aren't total pricks." Hmmm… Idea!

"I have an idea. I'm running a little low on ADAM. Could you get some from the Keepers for me tomorrow?"

"Oh… uh, sure. So I just stick em with a needle and draw blood?"

"That's pretty much it. Careful though they squirm a lot."

I stand and stretch, yawning a little as I do. "I'm going to go back to bed. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, good night…" Nata says absently as she stares at the TV.

I walk back toward my room but Nata calls to me from behind me, "Jackson!" I look back. "You should be more careful. If you don't dress more warmly you might get sick."

Huh? What… oh…

"Damn forgot to put on clothes again… Is this going to happen a lot I wonder? Hopefully not… I want to believe that my forgetfulness is a side effect from that asari melding. I'll try and keep that in mind, Nata."

"Night, Jackson." I can hear the amusement in her voice. Bosh' tet.

"What did you call me?"

Fuck…

"Nothing." I say escaping into my room. Geez that was a close one…


	5. Chapter 5 Splicer

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the Bioshock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: I'm glad people like it so far. Just wanted to say that a lot of the O/C characters are based on people I actually know! Cool huh? Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Some of the questions you've been asking will be revealed in this chapter, albeit adding many more to the list at the same time. Fret not, it is all planned.**

**Warning: There will be a lot of allusions to other games in this one; be ready with Google! Also it's super long.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>What's done is done."<strong>

**~William Shakespeare~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch.5: Splicer<strong>

**10:23 AM February 18, 2182**

* * *

><p>Alright… Let's see if this works…<p>

I pick up my pistol and press it into my shoulder. I grimace and fire.

"Ah fuck!" I scream in pain. I look down at my bleeding shoulder and watch as the wound heals. The muscles in my shoulder contract and relax around the wound, stretching over the wound slowly and steadily. Finally, the wound closes; a small bullet scar replaces it. Ok, the tonic works! I made this one myself. I'm actually rather proud of that. This is the first tonic that I made myself that works… guess I should name it… uh… Fast… Healing. Fast Healing… Fast Healing? That's not very original… ah well, it works and that's what matters. Albeit rather painfully.

I'll have to make a new tonic that helps lessen pain. I get up from my desk and put my pistol in my holster. I shake my arm in an attempt to get feeling back into it.

Nata runs into the room with a frying pan and looks around frantically. "What was that? I heard a gunshot!"

"Just testing something! Just put the pan down." I saw trying to calm her down.

"Oh." Nata says lowering her "weapon."

My omni-tool starts beeping and I open it to find that I have a message from the Shadow Broker agent I came in contact with.

"I got a message from the Shadow Broker!" I say quite exited.

"Well read it!" Nata says just as exited.

"Okay! It says:

_To: 662544212142_

_Splicer: …_"

"Splicer?" Nata interrupts.

I thought this would come up. "It's my alias. I figured I should have one otherwise I might divulge some sensitive information or something. I mean I am dealing with the Shadow Broker here."

Nata nods, "I see, keep reading."

"_Splicer:_

_We've heard some good things about you. The Shadow Broker has work for you, should you accept it. Recently some sensitive information has been purchased by a broker. He's a krogan, one Urdnot Ramlok. The information may compromise certain Blue Suns operations, so he's been targeted by Blue Suns assassins. At the moment he is the only one who has this information and your job is to escort him to three other information brokers on the Citadel. If you succeed the Blue Suns will be forced to purchase the information from each broker, rather than attempt to eliminate the loose end. If this goes right, we'll both make a lot of money. You will receive 2% of the final sum the information is sold for. Do you accept?"_

I look up at Nata. She looks back and nods, "Well go on. Accept it."

"But what if I make an enemy of the Blue Suns? That's a pretty dangerous foe." I'd really rather not become the enemy of such a powerful group. That might mess with my relationship with Zaeed four years from now… or will it?

"Well if you do this job, you can get good with the Shadow Broker, I mean that is a very powerful ally!" Nata exclaims. That is true. Then again… if the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC actually happens then this will all have been for no reason in the long run.

"Okay I'll do it." I say as I type a response into my omni-tool. "While I'm out could you run some errands for me?"

"Sure what do you need me to do?"

"I need you to pick up that armor that I ordered from the store, get some more food for us, and get some more ADAM for me too if you could. Oh and get something nice for yourself too if you want."

"Thanks dear…" Nata says sarcastically.

I smile. My omni-tool starts beeping again.

"Got another message it says:

_To: 662544212142_

_Excellent. The locations of the brokers you need to escort the krogan to have been forwarded to your omni-tool. You have to meet the krogan outside of Eternity Lounge on the Wards in one hour. Expect resistance."_

"You better get going then," Nata said a little excitedly.

"Yeah. I'll see you later." I grab my shirt off of my bed and pull it on and quickly rush out the door. I can't wait to meet this Ramlok guy. He sounds like a badass.

* * *

><p><strong>11:46 AM February 18, 2182<strong>

Whoops, I'm a little late. Hope Ramlok is okay. Then again I'm pretty sure a krogan, no not just any krogan, an Urdnot, can handle himself. I round the corner into that excessively long hallway that leads to Eternity. I never understood why BioWare made this hallway so long and didn't give you the ability to sprint out of combat in the first game.

I spot a group of people hanging near the transit terminal at the end of the hall. A group of three Blue Suns, all human, are standing around a…

Holy shit…

That is the biggest damn krogan I've ever seen…

That must be him then. Fuck… He's massive! He looks like he could eat all of those Blue Suns mercs and still have room for seconds! Ramlok stands twice as tall as the tallest Blue Suns merc, who looks around 180 cm tall, and his shoulder width is at least as wide as all three Blue Suns mercs standing side by side. Ramlok's massive and impressive head plate is a very dark red and is almost black. His skin is a burnt orange color with scales along his jaw that match the color of his head plate.

Uh oh. Looks like he may be in trouble here, the mercs are fingering their pistols. Time to give em a little show…

I raise my arms and focus my EVE as a migraine builds in my head. The air around my arms ripples with energy as my Telekinesis plasmid powers up. I focus on their hand guns and open my hands. Their guns fly off their belts and into my waiting hands. I drop one of them and hold one in each hand, akimbo style. The Blue Suns turn around and stare at me in shock.

I advance slowly and keep the pistols trained on the mercs. They stare at me in shock, as does Ramlok. I nod at him, signaling him to knock them out. He just looks at me confused. Ugh… guess I have to do all the work here…

I use Telekinesis to throw the right most merc into the others. They topple over on top of each other. I drop one of my guns onto the ground and use my Cyclone Trap plasmid to send the pile of mercs sailing into the ceiling. They hit the ceiling so hard that they bounce and fall back to the ground dead. Ramlok covered his head as the mercs fell. Odd…

I walk up to Ramlok but before I can say anything he whimpers and huddles into the corner protecting his head. The fuck?

"Please just leave me alone!" He squeals. His voice quivers in terror.

"Uh…" Well this is confusing. "I… uh… the Shadow Broker sent me. I'm supposed to escort you."

"Oh thank you!" Ramlok stands and picks me up in a hug that feels like being trapped under a huge pile of sand.

I manage to choke out a few gurgling noises that signal him to stop hugging me. After I regain my ability to breathe I look up at him and extend my hand.

"Splicer." Cool alias. Glad I thought it up.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Urdnot Ramlok." The krogan says shaking my hand in an iron grip.

"Uh, we should go to the first broker before more Blue Suns show up." I really can't mask the confusion in my voice. He's such a weird krogan.

"Of course. After you."

I turn and jog back down the hall, scooping up the other two pistols that I discarded earlier. We get to the terminal and I hail a cab to go to our first destination, which is some turian broker on the Zakera ward. A cab door opens and I motion for Ramlok to go in first.

He does a slight bow to me before entering. The cab sinks considerably as he enters but still remains floating off the ground, if only slightly. This guy is so weird. He has manners… That's like, unheard of in the krogan species. Not trying to be prejudiced or stereotyped, but come on! The most polite krogan I know of was the scientist guy from ME2, and he killed his successor with a knife!

I enter the cab, reluctantly, and close the door. The cab takes off and flies toward the Presidium.

"So you're Clan Urdnot?" I just have to know.

"Yes. Well… sort of…" He stares out the window and I detect a hint of melancholy in his voice.

"What do you mean sort of?" I don't mean to sound sensitive, but… he really sounds like he's about to cry.

"I… it… it didn't end well…" Oh yep, there he goes. Ramlok quivers with sobs and covers his face with his hands. Not gonna lie here… I'm kind of uncomfortable.

"I-I'm okay." Ramlok says as he wipes his face, "I'm sorry. That isn't a good memory."

We were silent the rest of the trip. I'm a little speechless to be honest…

When we arrived the turian broker was waiting for us with two armed guards. The transaction was pretty quick, only about 10 minutes, then we were off again. Our next broker is an asari on the Presidium. This one is supposed to be a covert transaction… that is if Ramlok can be covert… I'll have to be wary of any mercs…

When we get to the meeting place. The broker is waiting on a bench nearby. She motions us over and we sit next to her on the bench. While the transaction takes place, I keep a lookout for anybody suspicious…

Let's see…

Okay that guy looks pretty suspicious… There's some human guy sitting at a bench by himself.

"Excuse me." I say standing and walking briskly over to him. I deliver a devastating punch to his jaw and he is unconscious in the first blow. I lay him down so he looks like some hobo. I look around and it doesn't seem like anybody noticed. Awesome. I walk over to the bench where the broker and Ramlok wait, just as the transaction finishes.

Without a second word the asari walks off very quickly. Our next broker is Barla Von, the "banker" from the first game. His office is just a short walk from our spot. Something has been has been eating at me though, and before Ramlok can walk off I stop him.

"Ramlok, how about you tell me what this information is."

"Oh I don't know… I warn you, this may make you a target for the Blue Suns."

I frown at him, "I can handle myself."

"Oh of course. Well, I have evidence that there is a new supplement that the Blue Suns recently got their hands on that, not only improves their combat effectiveness, but also makes them nearly invincible. The drawback is that this supplement is incredibly rare, and the Blue Suns don't have a source for it, nor can they duplicate it. Apparently it's naturally occurring so that can't manufacture it. Also the drug is dangerous for people because it causes them to go insane when they use it, making them hard to control. The Blue Suns plan on putting it on the Black Market if they find a way to duplicate it. This information is sensitive for two reasons. First because if people found out it makes them insane they wouldn't buy it. Second if C-Sec found out, they would outlaw all Blue Suns activity in Citadel Space. They've come close to doing this a few times but this would definitely push the Council to outlaw the Blue Suns."

"Wow that is pretty sensitive information. What is the drug?"

"Only high ranking Blue Suns know what it is. But the information I have has the name for it here. It just looks like a few random letters and numbers to me… but apparently, they got it from some human who was loaded with the stuff and happened to have a bunch on him. Also this guy is the only person that the drug has no psychoactive effects on and he is now a high ranking member of the Blue Suns."

"That sounds like it could be very dangerous if it ever got out to the public."

"Extremely. I don't think this information should be sold back to them because they'll just move on with this drug operation. That'll lead to many innocent deaths… it's despicable…"

Seriously? You're the worst krogan ever…

"I-I know I am…"

FUCKING INNER MONOLOGUE!

"Listen Ramlok, I didn't mean that. You care about people and that's a good thing."

"You think so? My kin disagree…" I can see why…

"If you really want to help people, then I think we may be able to do just that…"

"How do you mean?"

"I have a plan. Listen you said that if this information got to C-Sec that Blue Suns activity will be outlawed in Citadel Space, right?" I'll try and lead him to the conclusion… make him feel good…

"Yes I did. And I see where you're going with this and I don't think it's a good idea. If the Blue Suns found out that we leaked this information then they won't purchase it from the Shadow Broker, which means the Shadow Broker will lose a lot of money and that I'll be killed!"

"Yes that's true. But say hypothetically that… Barla Von for instance leaked this information. Then he would be killed right?"

"Well, yes…"

"And let's say this information was leaked after the purchase because of a separate copy in Barla Von's files, then he would be implicated but the Shadow Broker would still make money and Barla might not be killed correct?"

"Yes, but…"

"And then if that happens then the Blue Suns activities would be outlawed in Citadel Space, confining them to the Terminus Systems, and if people caught wind that the Blue Suns were selling a psychoactive drug, then this particular drug wouldn't make any money right?"

"… Ok. Sounds good to me. Solid plan." Finally! Woot! L33t skills right here!

Ok… I'm about to save countless lives… feels good…

"Alright good. Ramlok, I need you to download the information to my omni-tool and when we get to Barla Von's office I need you to distract him while I download the files to his personal computer. Later tonight, I'll break in and send the information to a friend of mine in C-Sec…" I know just the person to send it to…

Ramlok nods and opens his omni-tool. I open mine and a small download bar appears on my display. After it hits 100% I motion him to follow me to Barla's office. As I walk I open my omni-tool and look over the files. I open one which is a short message between a high ranking Blue Suns merc and Vito Santiago. Wow, Vito Santiago? This goes all the way up then. It reads:

_To: Vito Santiago_

_Boss,_

_Substance Four-D-Four-M just got back from the labs. This stuff is crazy! If we can find a way to lessen or eliminate the psychoactive effects of the drug, then we can literally make super soldiers! The new guy, the one who brought us the stuff? What was his name again? Sam Keppler right? Well anyways we've studied him a little and we haven't found a reason why Four-D-Four-M doesn't affect him the same way. Don't worry boss we're working on it. Also we still can't tell exactly what it is but it's natural so we can find it somewhere. Keppler says that wherever he got his is gone so we can't get it so there's no point in asking. Sorry but we'll keep trying._

_-Chuck_

Four-D-Four-M? Never heard of it. Nor have I ever heard of anybody named Sam Keppler. I don't have time to think about this now. We're at Barla Von's office. I enter first and then Ramlok does.

"Greeting Earth-Clan. Tuchanka-Clan. I assume you're here for the transaction?"

"We are." I say.

"Code?"

"A polite society is an armed society. And there is no greater weapon than information." Ramlok recites the code phrase like he did two times before. It reminds me of that line Mick says in Fallout: New Vegas.

"Well said." Barla opens his omni-tool as does Ramlok. "Download underway."

I move around Barla Von's desk, trying not to get attention to myself. I nod at Ramlok who nods back. Ramlok then engages Barla Von in a conversation about the symbolic nature of the environment suit. I use the distraction to begin downloading the files deep into Barla Von's private terminal, someplace he wasn't likely to check. The download progress bar appears on both my omni-tool and Barla Von's PC.

A few minutes later, Barla closes his omni-tool, "Alright the transaction is complete. The Shadow Broker told me to tell you, Ramlok- to lay low for a while. I think that is- a good idea. Also, you are instructed to delete- the files from your omni-tool and delete any- copies you may have made."

Ramlok looks at me and I nod at him to do so. Damn! The download to Barla Von's PC isn't done yet! Have to keep stalling…

"Oh alright, I'll do that now…" Ramlok opens his omni-tool and types into it a little. "Okay, it's all gone. I have to lay low? Where should I go?"

"That's not my responsibility." Barla opens his omni-tool and checks it.

Come on… only 2% more… I nod at Ramlok to keep Barla Von distracted.

"So uh… are you from the Volus homeworld?" Ramlok asks.

Just at that moment the door open again and two Blue Suns mercs storm in with their assault rifles raised. I react faster than they can, throwing up my right arm and snapping my fingers. The shot turns out to be lucky, the spark igniting right on the left most merc's eye. He scream s in pain as fire spreads quickly from the orifice that used to be his eye. I shoot a bolt of lightning from my palm with my Electro Blast plasmid at the other merc as he trains his rifle on me. The bolt connects with his gun and causes it to short circuit. He drops his rifle as the electricity travels into his arms. I fire a second into his face and he spasms and falls to the floor. I draw my pistol and level it with his head. The sound of the gunshot resonates loudly in the room. The Blue Suns mercs lie dead on the floor and my omni-tool beeps as it completes the download.

"Yes success!" I raise my omni-tool up into the air in triumph! Whoops… said that out loud… dammit!

"Uh we better be going." Ramlok says hastily.

I quickly move toward the door with Ramlok, allowing him to leave first. Barla Von calls from behind me and catches my attention.

"Excuse me! But do you work exclusively for the Shadow Broker?"

"No." Uh oh, does this guy want me to do work too? "I am pretty much freelance but I do do work for the Shadow Broker as well."

"I see. What is your name?"

"Just call me, Splicer."

"Have a nice day, Splicer."

I leave without another word. Like a boss.

Ramlok and I step up to the cab terminal, I type in the coordinates for the nearest transit station to my apartment, and I turn to Ramlok. "Where do you need to go? It's on me."

"Oh well actually… I have to lay low for a while so I guess that means that I can't go back to my place…"

"Don't you have any relatives or friends or somebody you can stay with?" I'm kind of reluctant to hear his response. This is gonna be a little sad…

"No, I'm not an actual member of my Clan, and I don't really have any friends… Most non-krogan are friends with krogan because of the protection they can provide. I'm not a very good krogan so they don't like me. My kin don't like me either for the same reason…"

I thought so… sad…

"I'm gonna regret this but… Why don't you come stay with me for a while?"

"R-Really? That would be great!"

"Okay calm down, it's only temporary. My roommate is not going to like this…"

"I… no I can't ask…"

Here we go… "What is it?"

"I need something from my home. We don't need to get… it tonight. But just soon."

I nod and we both enter the cab and I shut the door. Just as the door closes my vision goes suddenly black and white. Ah man! Another genetic ghost vision? I really hate these… Wait a minute…

I look out the window and I see the genetic ghost of… a Collector… No, not a Collector, a Prothean… It looks different somehow. It's running, then it gets evaporated by a powerful laser.

I shouldn't be seeing this… I… I should only see visions from creatures that I share genetic material with… I don't share any with Collectors… do I?

"Hey!" Ramlok waves his hand in my face. I jump and my vision returns to normal. "Are you alright, Splicer?"

"Uh… no… not really… But I'll be fine…"

What the fuck does this mean?

* * *

><p><strong>9:49 PM February 18, 2182<strong>

Ugh… my head hurts…

That always happens after a genetic ghost and they've been happening all day! They've all been of species I've never seen before, most of Collectors, some even were of Keepers…

Bright side? The Blue Suns bought the information for 50 million credits. So that brought my payment to an even 1 million credits. Aw yeah… it's safe to say that I don't need any jobs for a while… eh what the hell I'll do em any ways. Keeps me fit.

There's a knock at my door.

"Come in," I hope it's Nata.

Nata storms in, "Why is there a krogan on my couch?"

Never mind…

"He needs a place to stay. There are Blue Suns after him." I really don't have the patience for this…

"I don't care if he's in trouble with the Blue Suns and I don't care if you have the patience for me or not right now! I want him out!"

Fucking inner monologue…

"It's just for a few nights, Nata. He'll be killed if we don't help him. He won't be much of a burden. I swear, just talk to him. You'll see what I mean."

Nata keeps her arms crossed with her hip cocked to one side, a clear sign she's freaking pissed. She sighs and shakes her head.

"Okay. I'll go talk to him. Do I have your permission to shoot him if he gets too aggressive?"

Doubtful…

"Yes you have my permission to shoot him. Oh, but I'll need my gun tonight, I'm going out with Vaga."

"Nah, I'll just use one of your new guns."

"New guns?"

Nata turns and walks out the door and returns dragging a large metal case. Oh yeah! I had a guy make me some custom guns! I've been waiting forever for these!

I drop to my knees and flip the lid off of the case. Inside are three guns, one is a semi-auto assault rifle, another is a short but powerful and accurate shotgun, the third is a handgun that resembles a revolver, except more prismatic and with that cool Mass Effect look to it. Each gun is colored in pitch black and the display lights are bright neon blue, a play off of the glow of a hypo of EVE.

"Oh and I picked up your armor today too." Nata turns and walks out again. I admire each gun closely. Nice… got me some awesome…

"No! I got it!" I hear Nata yell from the front room.

"No, please let me get…" I hear Ramlok say timidly.

"No I can do it! Just go sit on the couch!"

Nata comes in a moment later dragging a much larger metal case behind her. She drops it and sits onto my bed exhausted. I can't help smiling. They're starting to get along… I guess…

I flip the catches on my armor case and flip open the lid.

Aw nice!

The armor is just like I asked the armorer to make it! It's so cool!

It doesn't take long at all to put my armor on. I walk over to my mirror and examine the armor properly.

My armor was custom designed to my specifications. It looks like a cross between Sam Flynn's armor in TRON Legacy and the Nano-Suit from Crysis. My armor looks like a pitch black version of the Nano-suit from Crysis minus the weird helmet, with neon blue stripes similar to Sam Flynn's from TRON adorning my torso, arms, and legs. There are also black armor plates on my legs, arms and chest. My hands are exposed so that I can use my plasmids. My helmet looks like the Shadow helmet from Infinity Blade, except with a glass mask that's pitch black and obscures my face. The mask can go transparent however if necessary. A neon blue strip like the ones on my armor runs up the middle of my helmet. I also had a special shoulder piece made that can hold up to nine EVE hypos and auto inject EVE into me, like Delta's suit in BioShock 2. I only had one made however and I'll wear it on my left shoulder. I look like a boss… Unfortunately my armor doesn't have nanobots or a data-disk. It was quite a disappointment learning that nothing like that existed. It does have a high tech VI though that is named SNAKE. It stands for something, wish I could remember what the dealer told me what it was. I picked it out specifically because its acronym was SNAKE.

"You look kind of cool. But that would be stupid to wear around." Nata says from my bed.

"Oh you're still here…" I turn to her and pull my guns out of my case.

"Where are you going with all those guns?"

I press the button on the side of my rifle to collapse it and place it on my back. Then I repeat the same process with my shotgun and handgun. I bend down and take my helmet out of the case and put it on my head. My armor's VI links with the helmet and it displays my medi-gel levels and shields are maximum. Good.

"I'm going out with Vaga. Remember?"

Nata just shakes her head and leaves. I don't really like to keep information from her, but this is important.

"Jackson!" I hear Nata from the main room, "Vaga is here!"

I walk out into the main room. Ramlok stares at me wide eyed as I walk by. Vaga turns to me. He's fully armored too, armored in armor similar to Garrus's armor from Mass Effect 1. Except Vaga's armor is almost completely black, with an intricate design painted onto his torso in silver.

"Nice armor," Vaga says with a smirk, "Looks pricey how much did it cost?"

"This and the guns cost 350,000."

Vaga smirks a little wider and chuckles, "My armor is one of three sets made by Ramora Tazaria the most famous turian armor craftsman from Palaven. It's worth rivals that of most space stations. My weapons! Oh that's a whole other story…"

I drown out Vaga's voice in my own thoughts, it's really the only way to kill time while he does this. His pride is really loud and time consuming sometimes.

…

Oh, looks like he stopped talking.

"Cool story bro, but we outta get going. Ramlok?" Ramlok looks up at me. "Did you delete the data off of my omni-tool like I asked?"

Ramlok nods like a child. He he, him and Nata will get along great.

"Let's go, Vaga. Is your car waiting?"

"Yeah it's on the roof." Vaga turns and walks out of the apartment, drawing his silver sniper rifle as he walks.

I follow and turn around as I close the door. "We'll be back soon. Don't wait up."

Nata is clearly still angry with me. Sheesh, I'm gonna be hearing about this a lot later.

* * *

><p><strong>12:11 AM February 19, 2182<strong>

"_Jackson! Von is leaving. Where the hell are you?"_ I hear Vaga's voice say over my radio. Finally! Who works till midnight?

"I'm here…"

"_Where? I don't see you? My tracker is detecting you near one of the planters."_

I sit up with some difficulty due to the weight of the dirt covering me and I hear Vaga exclaim over the communicator. I pull myself to my feet and brush myself off.

"_Why were you in the planter?"_

"I don't know… only place to hide?"

"_Well, whatever he left in a cab a few minutes ago. Go now."_

"Thanks, Vaga. Keep watch make sure no C-Sec spot me."

I hop out of the planter and look left and right. On a park bench immediately to my right is a human couple staring at me in horror.

"Don't mind me folks. Just taking a brisk midnight walk. Have a nice night."

I walk away quickly. That was close, it was almost awkward…

I start jogging away and I spot the guy that I struck earlier. He's still on the park bench. Uh oh, I might've put a little too much oomph into that punch.

I jog up to Von's door and begin hacking the lock on the door. The lock is very intricate but I think I…

Yes! Got it!

"_Ah! Keep it down would you? This is supposed to be covert! Don't scream in success just yet!"_

"Got it."

I walk into Barla Von's office which is pitch black. I enter quickly so that the door closes behind me.

"Lights." My helmet's built in flashlight lights up and illuminates my vision. I walk quickly behind his desk and start typing into his terminal.

Okay…

Found the files! Now let's see…

I open up a search engine on the extranet and look up the C-Sec officers' database.

Okay…

Ah!

Here we go: Vakarian, Garrus.

Now let's give him an anonymous tip…

And…

Sent!

"Okay Vaga. I'm done here."

"_I know, you were narrating that entire thing…"_

Damn!

"_Meet me up here. I'm prepping my car."_

"Alright, I'll meet you up there."

I am about to walk away but I stop and look back at the terminal. Might as well do it now…

I open a new search engine and type in: Commander Shepard.

I open the first link which is an Alliance database…

Huh… Male… I was kind of hoping for a female Shepard. He was born on Mindoir… Oh, colonist origin… and he was decorated for fighting off scores of slavers in the Skyllian Blitz! Cool! War Hero! That's usually the backstory I choose. Oh, and it says here that he's a biotic, cool! Though that means he could be anything from an Adept to a Vanguard to a Sentinel. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

No images of what he looks like here though. Maybe in images. I go back to the search engine and click images.

Nothing. Great.

I guess I'll find out what he looks like eventually.

Well if he turns out to be a Paragon, which is what I kept him as ninety percent of the time, then I'll be able to predict his actions pretty easily.

"_Jackson! What the hell are you waiting for! You have a few C-Sec officers closing in!"_

"Dammit! Lights!" I delete the files and turn off the terminal.

I drop down behind the desk just as the door opens and I see two shapes enter the room.

"Where's the light switch?" I hear one's voice, a turian's, say.

"Just use your damn omni-tool!" I hear another's, a woman's, say.

"Oh. Oh right." A light appears and scans the room slowly, passing over the desk. As the light reaches the other side of the room. I crawl around the desk on the other side. And Aero Dash toward the asari officer. I throw my fist into her face as I finish the Dash. The force of the blow causes her to soar out of the office. The turian officer turns toward me with his gun pointing at me with one hand and his omni-tool in the other.

"D-d-don't move! Don't move or I'll shoot!" He's freaking out. I can see his hands shaking. Greenhorn. Might as well make use of this.

I raise my arm slowly at him. He begins to shake even more violently.

"W-w-what are you doing?"

I activate my Electro Blast plasmid and my glowing veins are visible from underneath my helmet. He looks at me, pure terror in his eyes. Then he faints. Sometimes… you don't even need to attack.

I sprint out of the office toward a nearby tall building that Vaga was looking out on. I climb the many flights of stairs with expert speed, taking the elevator would have gotten me caught.

When I reach the roof I see Vaga's black and silver car hanging about a meter and a half off of the ground with the door open. Vaga is waving at me to jump in.

I run and jump toward the car, only making it up to my chest. Seriously, I've never been a very good jumper. Maybe I outta make a gene tonic for that.

Without waiting for me to climb all the way in Vaga pulls away and starts flying towards the Wards at full speed. I look back and see three C-Sec police cars flying after us with their sirens blasting.

I raise one of my arms and hit one with an underpowered Electro Blast. The car's systems fail momentarily, but just long enough to throw it off of the chase. I aim my arm at the second one and use Telekinesis to push the nose of the car up, sending it flying skyward. I look down and see that we're flying above the lake. I snap my fingers at it and I Incinerate the water on the surface creating a massive steam cloud. The police car flies into it and comes out too low, almost crashing into the krogan statue. They swerve at the last minute and crash into the lake.

I pull myself all the way into the car and strap myself in.

"Nice moves." Vaga says focused on the sky.

"Nice flying." I raise my fist to him and he bumps it with his.

"So want to hit the clubs?" Vaga says as he slows the car a little.

"Never a dull moment with you is it?" I can't help but smile as I say that.

"The limelight never ceases."

"I'm in. But like last time I don't want to drink anything."

"It's less fun that way but fine."

A thought comes to mind. Oh right… damn. "Uh could you actually drop me off at home? Nata is gonna be mad at me if I'm out all night."

"Alright fine. Maybe your krogan friend could do with a night out?"

"Nah, he's still being hunted by the Blue Suns. Tell you what. Next week we'll all go out and party all night."

"Can't wait."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**Sorry Guys! I know you all REALLY wanted a Female Shep, but after much deliberation and self-doubt I decided to go with Male Shep. Sorry again, but if I went Female A LOT of stuff I planned for in the future would be thrown out the window or would have to go in totally separate directions. Yes it is THAT important.**

**Well if I did do a Fem Shep she would've been a soldier with the same back story.**

**Conversion stuff here:**

**Ramlok's proportions: Ramlok is 360 cm tall. That's like 12 feet tall in US standard measurement. He's just as wide as those three mercs standing side by side and each one is a muscular and broad mercenary. He's very big. Get the picture?**


	6. Chapter 6 The Noise of the Dark

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Alright, sorry if things seemed slow to start, but this chapter is the start of a HUGE story line, expanding straight into chapter 20 and above. Sorry but i forgot to mention this, chapter 5? VERY important to the story! Like everything that happens in the next like 20 chapters is directly linked to my actions in chapter 5. An important thing to remember about this story, is that this isn't your run-of-the-mill, I-write-this-as-I-go story. EVERYTHING... I can't stress this enough: EVERYTHING is planned! Nothing is random, as random as it seems.**

**Oh and I just wanted to say that I've been counting how many pages I've written so far for all my chapters, and it makes me realize that it's not hard to write a book, because by chapter 23 it's almost 400 pages long. So by the time this story is finished it will rival Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in length. Insanity? HELL YES! So if you guys are holding your genius back because you think it would be to hard, don't! Write that story! And if you get famous? Send me a postcard.**

**And as always: Thanks for reading, reviewing, and liking my story. Please keep reading!**

"**Courage doesn't always roar."**

**~Mary Anne Radmacher~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch.6: The Noise of the Dark<strong>

**2:15 PM February 20, 2182**

* * *

><p>I've been keeping an eye on the news. The Council is deciding what to do about the Blue Suns. The information I leaked to Garrus has pushed the Council to outlaw Blue Suns activity like Ramlok and I planned. For now though I can't be bothered with that.<p>

I've been tracking some human guy who C-Sec put down a bounty for. This guy is suspected of multiple murders and he's been at large for months now. I have to get him alive unfortunately, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Oh there he is!

From my vantage post on top of this building I can see him exiting some warehouse here on the Zakera ward. I zoom in on his face using my helmet's scope feature. SNAKE, analyzes his face and matches it with the guy I'm after. Good, a positive ID.

I watch him as he lights up a cigarette and takes a few puffs. Another man comes out of the warehouse and says a few words to him. He drops his cigarette and goes back inside the warehouse.

Time to move.

I drop off the roof of the building and roll as I hit the ground. The fall would've broken my legs, but my armor has shock absorbers. I unhook a grenade from my belt and stick it to the door.

"SNAKE: tag targets in the building."

"_Tagging. Tagged." _SNAKE responds, its voice a robotic reverberating and deep monotone.

Three outlines of people appear on my helmet, showing me where people are in the warehouse. I'm glad I had this feature installed, it's sort of like Adam Jensen's eye augments, which is where I got the idea for it. All three are far enough from the door so that the explosion won't kill them.

I pull my grenade detonator from my belt and press the trigger. The grenade obliterates the door and leaves a cloud of smoke in its wake. I charge into the room towards the nearest tagged person and tackle him to the floor from behind. I ram my elbow into the back of his head and he goes out cold.

I roll off of him and face my next target, a turian. He spots me and reaches for his pistol. I activate my Winter's Blast plasmid and freeze his hand to his hip. I then charge and ram my fist into his face. He does a half backflip and lands on his face.

A few projectiles strike my shield and I turn to see my bounty firing rounds at me. I charge at him, snaking so that he can't get a clear shot on me. When I reach him I roll behind him and sweep his legs out from under him with a quick kick. He lands on his back and I grab his neck before he can get up. I give him a minor shock with my Electro Bolt plasmid. He spasms and passes out.

"SNAKE: contact C-Sec. Tell them I have Arthur Pendosa."

"_Message sent."_

* * *

><p><strong>2:39 PM February 20, 2182<strong>

This is pissing me off…

"I don't care!" Garrus yells into my face, droplets of spit land on my helmet's mask, "This was my investigation! I almost had him too! Look what you did to them!"

Garrus gestures at the three incapacitated criminals. The murderer is for the most part unharmed but the other two are badly injured.

"The human you tackled to the floor has a cerebral contusion! We'd be lucky if he had cognitive function back in the next month! And that turian you sucker punched? His face is broken to the point where he won't be able to speak for months! What the hell were you thinking?"

I really don't want to argue with this guy… "Listen… Garrus was it? I did what I had to, and the suspects are in custody. You've got enough evidence on Mr. Pendosa to convict him without much testimony. All I'm waiting on is payment. I don't take orders from you, nor do I care what you think."

Garrus gives me a stare colder than the blood of a frozen Neanderthal, "It's Detective Vakarian to you! And good luck getting paid for this perform—"

"That'll be quite enough, Garrus!" Executor Pallin says as he approaches. "Go get witness statements."

"… Yes, sir." Garrus scowls at him but does as commanded and walks off toward a group of witnesses. But not before giving me one of the coldest looks ever.

"Good work, Splicer. I'll have the payment transferred to your account. Now if you'll excuse me I have to speak with Detective Vakarian."

I nod at him and he walks off toward Garrus. Geez never thought Garrus would be such a dick. Then again, he was kind of short with lawless individuals such as myself. Ah well, can't be everybody's friend. Though this was a little disappointing. I had hoped to become friends with Garrus. After all, he was so cool in Mass Effect one and two.

"… he's a fucking showman! He's a lawless, arrogant bastard! I will not allow him to do any work for us again!"

I look over my shoulder at Garrus and Pallin. Aw arguing over little old me? How sweet. Damn, Garrus REALLY doesn't like me. I hardly even talked to him too. He was rude to me outright so it's not my fault if I sounded annoyed or "Bastardish."

"It's not your call, Vakarian! I don't give a shit what you think of him, he gets results which is a lot less than I can say about you!"

Oh! That looks like it stung.

"Just give me a chance to prove myself Pallin! Give me a solo case, without bringing in some bounty hunter or whatever the hell he his."

That's seems like enough for now. They're not talking about me anymore so I don't need to listen to them now anyways. I turn and start heading towards one of the transit stations. I'm tired, I need some sleep. I haven't been able to sleep very well the past two nights, which I think put a damper on my performance today. Hopefully I'll be able to take a little nap before I have to party with Vaga, Nata, and Ramlok.

* * *

><p><strong>?<strong>

_I can't see. It's Dark again. I wish that I could see. I wish that it was daytime. But would that even help? The Dark is infinite and penetrating. I have lost the Grim Reaper in the Dark. Nothing resides in the Dark. So am I really here? No, the Noise resides here. The Noise, the Noise is even worse. It echoes in the Dark, the infinite Dark. It echoes louder than I can scream in pain. The Noise is so loud it boils my blood and peels my flesh. My very DNA screams in terror at the Noise of the Dark. In the Noise there is a voice. The Noise is a voice. It screams at me like I scream at it. But not exactly the same. The Noise screams in laughter. At my pain. Not only at my pain. And there are others, in the Dark, behind the Noise. I can hear it. Calling me. Calling my name. The Grim Reaper will find me. Sooner or later._

* * *

><p><strong>4:27 PM February 20, 2182<strong>

"Jackson! Jackson!"

I feel hands on my shoulders shaking me awake. "What? What?"

Nata stops shaking me and backs up a step, "You were screaming at the top of your lungs! Are you okay?"

I sit up. My head is pounding! I support my head with my hands and take a few breaths. What the hell happened? I haven't had a dream like that in over six years… "I'm fine just… a dream…"

"Sounded more like a nightmare."

"Yeah… that sounds more like it…"

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

Probably not… "Yeah, I'll be just fine."

"Okay," Nata turns and walks out the door into the hallway. "Ram! You can come out! He's fine!"

I hear something crash to the floor in the main room. Ramlok has been quite an interesting person to have around the house. He cleans, organizes, cooks… He's like a live in maid. That is if a maid slept on the couch… and was the size of a small car.

Ugh… Goddamn my head hurts. It's like my brain is spinning in my skull. Okay let's take this slow.

I stand, as slowly as possible to avoid a head rush. Nope that didn't help… Ugh… I fall back down onto the bed so that I can let the head rush subside. Let's try this again… slowly… Nope still didn't work, I'll just go.

Carefully I walk out of my room into the main room where Ramlok is attempting to reattach a leg to the table. I take a seat next to Nata on the couch.

Nata looks over at me, "Maybe you should get some more sleep?"

"Nah I'm fine. Besides I have to go to Ramlok's place and get that thing he needs." Speaking of which… "Ramlok?"

Ramlok looks up from the table in his lap at me.

"What was it that you needed from your apartment?"

He looks back down at the table and mumbles, "Just a few things…"

I shrug. Whatever. "You ready to go then?"

"Uh sure."

Ramlok stands and stands the table back up, jamming the leg underneath in an attempt to keep it standing. It doesn't and topples over. Ramlok bends to pick it up again.

"Just leave it!" damn krogan… "I'll buy a new one later. Hardly use it anyways."

"Sorry, I'm being an awful guest. I'll cook up the best dinner you ever ate tonight!"

That'll be a feat. Especially since there's only food paste and soda in the fridge.

I motion Ramlok to follow and I exit the apartment. This is going to be a long fucking night…

* * *

><p><strong>6:12 PM February 20, 2182<strong>

You've got to be fucking kidding me…

He's got a fucking baby?

Ramlok is standing in front of me holding a sleeping krogan baby. The thing still looks big enough to knock over a refrigerator on its own but it's still clearly a baby. The baby resembles Ramlok. It's got burnt orange skin but its undeveloped head plate is a pale red instead of his dark red. The baby looks very funny. It doesn't have saggy flesh like most krogan, it's rather tight. And its arms and legs are very stumpy and not proportional to the rest of it. Looks kind of like an egg or a sausage. Cute.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a kid?" I really want an answer for this.

"Because I'm not supposed to. This isn't really my child. He's my brother."

This sounds kind of familiar. Sounds sort of like Miranda's loyalty mission in ME2. What next? Ramlok is actually a genetically modified super soldier? Actually that may be believable… "Is that why you were disowned by clan Urdnot?"

"No, I was disowned because I didn't want to perform the Right. I took Hirvio because his mother was going to kill him."

"Your mom wanted to kill him? Why?"

"Well he's my half-brother; we have the same mother not the same father. And Hirvio was to die because he was sick. She left him for dead in the wastes. I couldn't let that happen. You would think that the krogan would take better care of their young. But Urdnot only want strong krogan. Little did they know that Hirvio here is a krogan prodigy, his strength is astounding so far. I'd bet he could hold his own in a fist fight with a Blue Suns merc."

Damn the krogan are picky… "Who was his father?"

"Urdnot Wrex."

I feel like puking… Wrex was one of my favorite companions in ME1! He was such a boss! I will never, not even when I'm a renegade, kill Wrex on Virmire. Uh oh, I hope that Shepard will have the same perspective. "Who was your father?"

"Urdnot Vankka. He's dead now."

"Oh, I'm sorry?"

"No don't worry about it. He died honorably."

"Listen Ramlok. I had a hell of a hard time convincing Nata to let you stay at our place. I doubt she'll feel good about this…"

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

"Oh! How adorable!"

Or maybe she will…

Nata picks up Hirvio with some difficulty and spins him around in a circle once. Hirvio shrieks with laughter as she does. I always imagined baby krogan would be tough. They would nurse with poison sludge and teethe with bullets or something… not act like… well babies.

Ramlok laughs, "I can see why you'd think that, Splicer, but no Hirvio will be raised different."

Damn my inner monologue!

A knock at the door tears our attention away from Hirvio.

"Who is it?" it's probably Vaga.

A woman responds from behind the door. "It's Miranda Lawson. Remember from a few weeks ago?"

Fuck…

"Who's Miranda Lawson?" Nata asks from behind me.

"She wants to offer me a job. Listen you guys I need to talk to her privately could you guys hang in my room for a while?"

Nata nods, "Sure, absolutely. Come on Ram."

Ramlok hoists Hirvio up in his arms and follows down the hall into my room. I stand and walk over to the front door. I take a deep breath and open the door.

Miranda Lawson greets me with a half-smile, which is probably her whole smile, and walks in without waiting to be invited in. This time she's wearing her Cerberus operative uniform. I'm going to quote Ken on this one and say that it's very official and would make most stand at attention. I wouldn't because I'm afraid she might hurt me…

"Would you like something to drink Miss Lawson?" Might as well be polite.

"No thank you. I came to talk to you about employment with our organization."

I motion for her to sit on my couch and I sit across from her in an armchair.

"As I was saying, we would very much like you to work with us in Cerberus. Like I said last time, you would be doing direct work for the Illusive Man and you would be paid very, very handsomely. Have you thought much about it?"

I haven't thought about it at all… "I have, and I'm afraid that I must decline. I just can't risk working with an organization as dangerous as Cerberus."

Miranda nods. "I advise you to reconsider, Mister Jackson."

Uh oh, "How the fuck do you know my name?"

Miranda stands and walks around the couch. "We know a lot about you Mister Jackson. We know that you are the freelance hitman known as Splicer. We know that you are a biotic and a tech expert. And we know that you appeared out of nowhere two months ago. We also know that no Robert Jackson exists in the C-Sec database and the only other Robert Jackson alive today is 98 years old and lives on Earth. We know everything about you Mister Jackson. We just want to know why. If you come work for us, there will be no more questions asked about the why. Now do you accept?"

The fuck? Biotic and a tech expert? Oh! They must have footage of me using my plasmids! They must think that Telekinesis is me using my "biotics" and Electro Bolt is Overload, Winter's Blast is Cryo Blast, and Incinerate is… Incinerate and all this makes me a tech expert! Wow, this is surreal. Well, at least they don't know that I'm not technically human anymore. I might be able to use this misinformation to my advantage…

"My answer is still no."

Miranda sighs, "Mister Jackson, we're trying to be reasonable. A person with your skill set should not be put to waste. Please reconsider."

"My circumstances can't be used to blackmail me. You don't need to know where I got my skills. Nobody does. Now get out of my apartment and don't come back unless you want to force me to work for you."

Miranda stares at me for a few seconds before turning and leaving. Phew. That could have gone better. But at least she's out of my hair.

"Guys you can come out now, she's gone!"

Ramlok comes out first with Hirvio in his arms, Nata follows quickly. She wastes no time in returning to the couch.

"Is all that stuff she said about you true?" Ramlok asks me as he puts Hirvio on the ground.

"No. Well… some of it isn't true."

"You're not going to work for them are you? That woman sounded mean."

"No don't worry Ram. I'm not going to work for them."

"Good."

Another knock at the door. "Who is it?"

A pause, "Vaga."

"Door's open!"

Vaga struts in slowly. Nata waves from the couch, "Hey Vaga."

Vaga chuckles and nods at Nata. "Hey Jackson, who was that bombshell human that I just passed on the stairs?"

Vaga has a real skill at getting me to laugh, "That was Miranda Lawson. She's been trying to hire me for a job."

Vaga looks over his shoulder and strokes his chin, "I wouldn't mind getting a job from her. Her waist looked quite supportive…"

We all laugh quite loudly at that. Vaga takes a seat next to Nata on the couch and I walk into the kitchen to get a drink. "Hey Vaga! You want something to drink?"

"Usual."

As I mix the drink for Vaga, I contemplate a little on my dream. I haven't had a dream as bad as that since I first went to Rapture. I think the first one was worse though. Damn I sure hope I don't have another one of those dreams tonight. "Here's your drink Vaga."

"Thanks, man. So… what's with the kid?"

I laugh, "That's Hirvio. He's Ram's half-brother."

Vaga stares at Hirvio for a while who stares back with a steady flow of drool seeping out of his mouth… onto my floor…"Cute. So what time you guys want to go out? The longer the better."

"I'm ready to go when you guys are"… damn… "Oh wait, doesn't somebody have to stay and watch Hirvio?"

Ramlok nods, somewhat apologetically. Nata raises her hand almost immediately, "I'll stay. It's not like I can drink anything anyways."

Vaga nods, "Alright. Sorry you won't be able to come. Everyone else ready to go?"

Ramlok leaves with Vaga reluctantly I follow but I turn before I close the door all the way. "Don't open the door for strangers!"

"He doesn't even know how to talk yet!"

"I wasn't talking to Hirvio…"

"I know. Just trying to make you mad."

"Didn't work. See you later Nata!"

"Have fun!"

It's going to be long night…

* * *

><p><strong>?<strong>

_I'm lost now. Lost in the Dark. Then again, I probably was always lost right? Well now I'm found. I'm lost because I was running. Running from the Grim Reaper. Now he has found me. I can feel his touch inches away from me. My feet are feeling heavier and heavier. No… he's got me. The Grim Reaper spins me around to face him. Now I can see his skull much more clearly. I can now see that his skull is not human, but something worse. A creature so malformed and misshapen it could hardly be called organic. The skull is symmetric however, suggesting that it has some semblance of nature in it. The Grim Reaper grasps my wrists and pulls my arms apart so they are stretched out to my sides. His skeletal fingers dig into my arms and impale them. It then lifts me above the ground so that I cannot fight at all._

"_You are broken… You have grown, and have been broken." The Lips of the Noise screams from the maw of the skull. The Lips of the Noise have the voices of a million billion tortured souls, screaming their lifetime's volume of air into one immaculate horrific howl. _

_I cannot speak back. The Noise drowns out my voice._

"_You are ours. Now sleep, and fear us."_

_The Lips cease their Noise. And all that remains to fill the Dark is my tortured scream._

Ugh… Damn… That was by far… the worst dream I've ever had… so far. Not to mention that I slept on the bar so that wasn't really comfortable. I sit up from the bar and look around the club. The place is completely empty save for me, Vaga and his… partners… yes that's plural… and Ramlok who is passed out on the stripper platform. What the fuck happened?

Oh yeah… we drank a lot… That's… pretty much self-explanatory…

Well, I better head home now. They'll be fine in a couple of hours or so.

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

This elevator is a little slow… Believe it or not, I actually think I found a reason for that. Everybody complains about these things in bars and stuff but did they ever put themselves in somebody else's shoes? Elcor for instance, I'm sure they're very uncomfortable moving at high speeds because of the gravity on their home planet.

Finally! I exit the elevator and I try and stay on my feet as I walk down the hall to my apartment.

Wait… something's not right…

My door is open I can see a flickering light inside. I draw my pistol and sneak up to the door. I peek inside. The place is completely trashed… and empty. I ready my Electro Bolt plasmid and I combat roll into the main room.

There's nobody here… wait…

I can see a shadow moving around in my bedroom. I sidle along the wall and peek into my room. I can see a dark armored shape ransacking my room.

He raises his hand to his ear. "It's not here. Are you sure he had it on him?"

…

"No. I'm not seeing anything like that."

…

"Alright I'm done here anyways."

I move into the doorway just as the figure turns around.

We face each other for a moment, my veins are charged with electricity and they're glow a bright blue. I must look damn intimidating. He makes the first move, whipping a shotgun from his back with impressive speed. Not impressive enough though. Just before he levels his shot, I throw my left hand up and blast an Electro Bolt in his face. His shield takes most of the hit but just enough energy hits him. He spasms for a few seconds before stumbling back in shock. I hit him with a few more bolts of electricity and the man falls to the ground shaking violently. I walk up to him quickly and crouch over him. The man stares up at me wide eyed, his nervous system is mostly inactive and he cannot move. I level my pistol with the center of his brow, but pause. Instead I whip the pistol across his temple, knocking him unconscious.

I walk over to my desk and put the lamp back in its proper place. I use my Telekinesis plasmid to bring the man to my desk. I lay him on top of the desk and keep the light close to him. His armor is pitch black but the only definable feature of it is…

Cerberus…

Fuck! I run into the hall and into Nata's room. The room is trashed just like mine.

"Nata? Are you here?" No response.

I look around the room and spot something on the wall. I open my omni-tool and activate the light. I raise it and illuminate the wall. A message is scratched onto the wall over my bed.

_You should reconsider our offer._

Dammit! I open the contacts on my omni-tool and scroll down to Vaga Kotka.

The phone picks up, _"Ugh… __Oh spirits help me… __hello?"_

"Vaga! Cerberus took Nata and Hirvio! I need you and Ramlok to help me track them down."

"_On it."_

I turn off my omni-tool and sit on the couch.

Don't worry Nata. I'll find you.

If I said that out loud, then good. I want Cerberus to hear me.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh no! What will happen next? I'll give you a hint: LOTS OF STUFF! Write a review telling me what you thought about this chapter and for what reason Cerberus kidnapped them. I always love to hear what you guys think!**


	7. Chapter 7 SFAF Part 1: The Plan

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Hi guys! Well I like how much you guys like my story. I appreciate all feedback positive and negative. Tell me what I'm doing right, or what I'm doing wrong. I appreciate it all. At this point I'm done with chapter 27. If you're curious about why I don't post more often… I like to make you wait. It's better this way. Trust me.**

**Alright! Starting a multipart event here! All multipart events will have subtitles for each part, just FYI. **

**Special treat for all of you: Since the next chapter is pretty short and closely tied with this one, I'll post it earlier than scheduled on Friday or Saturday and the chapter following on Tuesday like normal. So that's two chapters by next Tuesday. Excited? Didn't think so. But it'll get exciting in the next couple chapters. This chapter may seem a little dull, hence the slightly altered schedule.**

**Please Read, Review, and Recycle. Sorry. Just Read and Review this chapter, tell me what you think. But also recycle. Cause it's good.**

"**Whatever happens, take responsibility."**

**~Tony Robbins~**

**Ch.7: Search for a Friend – Part 1**

**The Plan**

**11:18 AM February 24, 2182**

Things have been a whole lot quieter around here. It's been three days and no word from Vaga or Ramlok about Nata. Cerberus managed to cover their tracks very well.

I'm also out of things to do around the house. I've been keeping busy by cleaning my apartment. Cerberus gave me a lot to do here at least. But now my apartment is immaculate and I'm out of stuff to do.

Well not totally out of stuff to do. I'm running low on EVE and I had a few ideas for tonics to develop. Guess I'll get started with that.

**A Few Hours Later…**

The EVE will take longer to make but my gene tonics are done now. Okay… guess I outta name them. This one lets me jump up to ten feet in the air so… this one is Spring Heel like Springheel Jack from Elder Scrolls IV. And this other one filters dangerous substances from my lungs so, uh… Iron Lung. Okay let's try them out.

I fill two syringes, one with Spring Heel and the other with Iron Lung. I inject myself first with the Spring Heel one, then with the Iron Lung one. Okay, now it's just a matter of waiting for them to develop. It'll probably be a few days at best for the abilities to start appearing.

I get up from my desk and turn up the heat on the burner for the EVE. I exit my room and walk back into the main room of my apartment.

I remove my shirt and start wrapping my hands with boxing tape. Punching bags are great ways to kill time and blow off steam.

**A Few Hours Later…**

I throw a final blow into the punching bag and take a couple steps back, breathing heavily. I pull the tape off of my hands and wipe my face and chest with a towel. I'm dying of thirst so I grab a can of Topari Sports Drink from the fridge. Topari is supposed to be for turians and other dextro-amino life forms, but the company recently made a new kind for levo-amino organisms like humans. I only found this out yesterday when I went grocery shopping. And I have to say, Topari is tasty. It tastes sort of like sweet orange juice with a little kick that I can't place. A knock at the door gets my attention.

I use my Telekinesis plasmid to unlock the door. "The door's open."

The door opens and Vaga comes in. "Hey Jackson. Wow, you cleaned up the place."

I shrug. "Not much else to do."

Vaga opens his omni-tool. "Listen, I found some information on Nata and Hirvio…"

"What? Why didn't you say that in the first place?"

Vaga raises his hands, "Calm down. It's not much but it's something. So after a few days of looking I couldn't find anything. So I had a friend in C-Sec check reports for me and it seems that a C-Sec dispatcher had been bribed by Cerberus to delay the response to the crime here."

I snap my fingers in realization. "Of course! That's why there weren't any C-Sec officers here until way after Cerberus was gone!"

"Right, well also I found out that they must still be on the Citadel because there was a malfunction with the docks and no ships have been allowed on or off the Citadel for a few days. Don't worry though, Ramlok is making sure that the problem won't be fixed for another week."

I sit down on my couch. We have a week to find Hirvio and Nata… "We need more information."

"You got that right. Speaking of which, how is our guest?"

I get up from my couch and lead Vaga into Nata's room. The Cerberus agent that I caught struggles with his bonds on Nata's bed. "He's okay. Still pretty quiet."

Vaga pulls the agent off the bed and throws him onto floor. He throws a few punches into his face and one into his stomach. Vaga tears the gag off of the agent's mouth. "Where are they?"

The agent scowls at Vaga and spits a mouthful of blood onto the floor next to him. Vaga sighs and throws him onto the ground again.

I shake my head, "I've tried that. He won't talk."

Hang on… I've got an idea…

I push Vaga out of the way and walk over to the agent. I grab his shirt and pull him close. I close my eyes and focus my mind. I activate my Electro Bolt plasmid and my veins glow brightly. I open my eyes and I am pleased to see that the agent has fear in his eyes. Okay! Progress!

Next I activate my Winter's Blast plasmid and icicles erupt from my arms. The agent jumps in response. Incinerate comes next and my arms light aflame. The agent yelps in surprise and starts to struggle violently.

Time for the big finale.

I grimace as my Insect Swarm plasmid activates and insects begin to burrow their way out of my flesh. The agent watches in horror as insects crawl out of my face, chest, and arms. The insects on my arms start crawling onto the agent's face.

The agent screams in terror. "Okay! God! I'll talk! Get them off of me! Please!"

I deactivate all of my plasmids and straighten. The bugs outside of my body all die and drop to the floor. The agent sits up.

I grab his throat. I growl at him. "Where are they!"

"Ugh! They… They're with Miranda! They're alive, don't worry, and don't hurt me."

I squeeze his neck a little. "Where is Miranda?"

"Ah! I-I don't know! I swear! I don't know!"

I punch him in his face and lift him off the ground by his throat. "Where is she?"

"I-I don't know! We were supposed to meet at a secure location then we would transfer the captives to another team! We were supposed to meet at Warehouse 18 on the Zakera Ward. That's all I know! Please let me go! I have to hide! If the Illusive Man finds out that I told you all this he-"

The agent's head explodes in my clutches. No, it's not what you think. I wish I could pop a man's head like a pimple, but I can't. No, he died because a sniper shot through the window.

That's not the biggest problem though. There's no atmosphere this high up on the Wards, so everything's getting sucked towards the hole where the window used to be.

I grab onto the desk because I know that it is attached to the wall. I look around and see Vaga looking around desperately for something to grab onto as he slides on the ground toward the hole. I throw one of my hands up and catch him with my Telekinesis plasmid just as he flies out the window. I throw him a little unceremoniously into the closet. I look around the room for something to block the window with but find nothing large or solid enough.

Fuck! Have to improvise. I let go of the desk and grab the window sill as I fly out of the room. With some difficulty I manage to pull myself back into the room and crawl toward the bathroom. When I get to the bathroom I shut the door and the dragging forces immediately cease. I turn on the bathtub and the sink and close the drains. Come on! Fill up faster… Faster dammit! Good enough. I open the door and brace myself against the door frame. I duck as water flies over my head towards the open window. I quickly activate my Winter's Blast plasmid and freeze the water as it reaches the window.

After the window is covered by a block of ice, I let out a sigh of relief. "Vaga, it's safe."

I walk over to where the bed used to be and sit on the floor.

Vaga walks out of the closet rubbing his neck. "What the fuck was that?"

"Don't know, Cerberus covering their tracks probably. At least we got something to go off of. I'm going to go to that warehouse tonight, you coming?"

Vaga nods. "Of course. I'll come back at 9. Be ready to go. By the way, that was the scariest thing I've ever seen."

I smile for the first time in three days.

Vaga turns and walks out of the room and out of my apartment. I sigh and let my head fall back against the wall.

**9:02 PM February 24, 2182**

I hear a knock at the door. I set my helmet down on the table and walk over to the door. I open it and Vaga walks in.

"Hey Vaga."

Vaga chuckles and walks over to my fridge. He opens it and takes out some of that turian soda that I keep around for him.

I close the door and walk over to the table and pick up my helmet. "So, do you think we'll find anything at the warehouse?"

Vaga takes a gulp of his soda and thinks for a moment. "Not anything substantial. Cerberus covers their tracks pretty well, as we've seen. But there might be something, this is all we have to go on after all."

I nod, "We better get going."

Vaga nods and kills his drink. He puts his helmet on and follows me out the door.

**Later…**

"What do you see Vaga?"

Vaga's voice crackles in through my comm. _"Nothing yet. A few night watchmen, but that's all."_

"Good."

I step off the stack of cargo containers and fall 5 meters to the ground. My armor's shock absorbers take the shock and I quickly recover. I set off on a jog into the warehouse.

A night guard rounds a corner and spots me. Before he can draw his pistol I roll towards him punch him in the stomach, followed by a guillotine headlock. A few seconds later he's unconscious on the ground.

I keep going and find myself in a large open area. This looks like as good a place as any for a hostage trade to happen.

"Vaga. I'm tagging my location. Meet me here."

"_Copy."_

I open my omni-tool. "SNAKE: begin scan."

"_Scanning in progress."_

A blue pane of light appears out of the end of my omni-tool and begins to sweep around the space. A noise from behind me causes me to spin around. Just Vaga.

Vaga nods at me as I scan the area. He patrols the area with his burst fire assault rifle at the ready.

Hey wait. We can't kill these guards… "Vaga!"

Vaga chuckles and looks at me.

"Don't kill the night watchmen. Their innocents. Civilians. I don't run that way."

Vaga chuckles. "Splicer has a soft spot. Who knew?"

"Hey, shut up I just don't kill innocent people got it?"

"But you're a hitman, isn't that a little strange?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well you kill people for a living. And the term 'innocent' is open to a little interpretation. I mean, what if the people you kill also happen to be husbands, wives, fathers or mothers?"

Hm… Guess that Samara's opinion is pretty valid here… meh, it's not like they're ever going to meet.

"Well, innocent and good are two very different things. If I kill a man because he's got enemies that hire me, then do I want to know that he is a devoted father? This man may be a dedicated father, but is he good if he feeds his family with money he earned by selling Red Sand? Innocent isn't open to interpretation. Good is."

Vaga nods in agreement and my omni-tool begins beeping. "SNAKE: What do we have?"

"_Suspicious substances detected. Multiple blood and skin samples detected that do not match any warehouse workers. Samples are derived from human DNA."_

"SNAKE: Search encrypted C-Sec databases and look for DNA matches.

A high pitched beeping indicates that SNAKE is encrypting the databases. After a moment, _"Cross reference completed. Human DNA samples match that of known Cerberus affiliates."_

"SNAKE: Are there any that are known to live on the Citadel."

"_Negative."_

"Dammit! SNAKE: Is there anything else?"

"_Nothing of import detected. Correction, there are small samples of saliva matching krogan DNA."_

Vaga perks up. "That may be Hirvio! He was a drooly kid."

I nod. "SNAKE: What can you tell me about the saliva?"

"_Scanning. Samples contain organic chemical known as Urogag."_

Ew sounds nasty. "SNAKE: What can you tell me about 'Urogag'?"

"_It is a chemical only found in infant krogan. At birth, the infant has a small oral gland that produces the chemical and that also is replaced after 6 months of infancy. The chemical's purpose is an anti-toxin, an evolutionary boon for the krogans, as a result of their hostile environment."_

Interesting, you learn something new every day.

Vaga walks up to me. "Well, at least we knew they were here."

I nod. Back to square one. We've got nothing to go on now.

Suddenly, Vaga's shield breaks and he collapses to the ground as a sniper round strikes him.

I gasp and a second round strikes the ground next to my feet. I look in the direction of the shooter and spot a sniper not far away on top of some containers. I activate my Telekinesis plasmid and pull the sniper off of his perch. He quickly recovers and grabs his rifle again.

I Aero Dash to him and grab the rifle from his hands, I use it to knock him out by bashing him over the face with the butt of the rifle. He collapses and I run back to Vaga discarding the rifle as I run. I hope he's alright…

I drop to my knees next to him and turn him over onto his back. Son of a bitch!

Vaga moans out and coughs. "Oh Spirits. I'm dying, I'm dead, I'm dying, I'm dead, dead, dead, dead…"

I roll my eyes. What a pompous asshole. "Vaga! Get up, you're not dead."

Vaga opens his eyes and sits up. He feels around his body looking for wounds. I lean him forward and find the bullet hole in the back of his armor. I pull the tungsten alloy out of his armor and hand it to him.

"So, that famous turian armorer really lives up to her name, huh?" I stand up and walk over to the unconscious assassin. I instantly recognize his armor as the Cerberus Assault Armor from ME2.

Fucking Cerberus!

"It's Cerberus?" Vaga walks up behind me.

Damn my inner monologue, but I guess it was appropriate this time. "Yeah it's Cerberus. Again. I guess he was supposed to wait for us to find this place then kill us, or at least you. I think they still are trying to hire me."

Vaga snaps his talons as he has a sudden epiphany. "Hey! Why don't you just contact… that one hot Cerberus lady, and tell her you want the job, but just use the opportunity to save Nata and Hirvio?"

I face palm. "Dammit that's so obvious a solution, why didn't I think of that… Wait… What if when I go to get the job, they don't have Nata and Hirvio there, but they're somewhere else instead?"

Vaga thinks for a second. "If you can record the conversation and she lets slip the location of Nata and Hirvio, then I can get a team together and we can go get them."

I nod. "Sounds like a good plan. Aw wait… dammit. I don't know how to contact Miranda."

Vaga gestures over to the unconscious Cerberus agent. "Maybe he knows, let's see."

I kneel next to him and spread his arms out to his sides. I activate my Winter's Blast and freeze his wrists to the ground. I then yank off his helmet and slap him around a few times to get him to wake up.

The Cerberus agent groans and his eyes flutter open. His eyes lock with mine and his eyes widen with panic. He tries to get up, but panics when he finds himself restrained. I grab his face and get him to lock eyes with me again.

"Listen. I have no time and even less patience with Cerberus. So you're going to tell me how to contact Miranda Lawson, or I'll burn you alive." I activate Incinerate and my hands light aflame.

The agent screams and tugs at his bonds in panic. "Okay! Just don't kill me!"

I stand and deactivate my plasmid. "Talk."

He is hyperventilating but manages to sputter out words. "Use my omni-tool. There's an encrypted channel that you can use to contact her. Just let me go."

I pick up his helmet and hit him upside the head with it. He falls unconscious again. I retrieve his omni-tool and search through the contacts. I find the encrypted channel and download it to my omni-tool.

"SNAKE: Contact Miranda Lawson through the encrypted channel."

"_Encryption in progress. Estimated call time: one minute."_

I turn to Vaga, keeping my omni-tool activated. He gestures at the Agent with his rifle. "What should we do about him?"

I look over at the Agent and shrug. "I'll leave it up to you."

Vaga nods and stares at the Agent for a moment. Vaga raises his rifle and shoots the Agent in the shoulder. "There, he'll bleed out slowly now. It'll give him time to think about where his allegiances."

I roll my eyes. "Come on Vaga. If you're going to kill the guy, you might as well do it quickly."

I draw my pistol and shoot the agent in the head. I know that I probably would have been opposed to killing him in the past, but Cerberus has fucked with me too much and I have no love for them… Damn, I'm not going to have a good time in ME2. That is if I end up joining Shepard's crew at all. The way things have gone so far, I'm having doubts about the Balance and if things will change. I don't know if my being here, doing… anything, will have an effect.

No, me being here definitely has had an effect. Miranda for instance. This never would've happened to her if I wasn't here. I don't even know if Nata is somebody who was a real person before I came to the Mass Effect universe, or if she is… a "character by chance."

I really need a philosopher or something to help me out with all this thinking.

"Hey Vaga?"

Vaga chuckles and turns to me from inspecting his back. "Hm?"

"Would you say that you're a 'character by chance?'"

"What the fuck does that mean?"

I shrug. "Nothing, never mind."

A pinging noise sounds from my omni-tool. _"Encryption complete. Contact Miranda Lawson?"_

"Yes."

"_Contacting."_

My omni-tool makes a dialing noise. I program my omni-tool to record the conversation. The dialing stops and I set the call to speaker phone.

"_Johnson? This better be good."_

Vaga walks up to me and I touch my throat mic. "Johnson is dead. This is Robert Jackson."

"_Ah, finally. I am glad you finally called. But I can't say that I approve of your methods."_

"I'm ready to… discuss your offer. Where can I meet you?"

"_Meet me at the Embassy bar on the Presidium in an hour. I should express, however, that I will only release your friends after you accept our offer and have worked for us for some time, you understand?"_

"Yes, I understand that you still need to have incentive for me to accept your offer."

"_Intelligent and skilled. I look forward to our meeting."_

Miranda hangs up and I close my omni-tool. I turn to Vaga. "Get your team together. I'll keep my comm open so you can hear our conversation. When she tells me where Nata and Hirvio are, you get them so that I can get the hell out of there."

Vaga nods and walks away. "I'll be ready."

**10:57 PM February 24, 2182**

This is a bad idea. I stand at the door to the bar taking deep breaths. If this goes wrong then I'm fucked and so are Nata and Hirvio.

I touch my throat mic. "Vaga I'm about to enter the bar, are you receiving?"

"_Yeah, we're hearing you loud and clear. We're ready to go the second she drops a location."_

Vaga had managed to pull together a team of four seasoned freelance mercenaries to fight with him at great cost and on such short notice. I just hope the money is worth it.

I walk into the bar fully armored and take a quick look around. There are still three people here, including the bartender, even at this hour. I spot Miranda in sitting at a table in the far corner. She motions me over.

I walk up to her and sit at the table.

Miranda smiles at me. "I'm glad you've chosen to accept our offer."

I hold up a hand. "I want to be assured that Nata and Hirvio are safe before I accept anything. As a gesture of good faith, I want you to tell me where you're keeping them."

Miranda raises her eyebrows and frowns. She thinks for a moment. "Why?"

I sit up in my chair and take on an adamant tone. "Like I said: a gesture of good faith. If I'm going to work for Cerberus, I'll need to trust them. And before you say anything, you can't buy my trust."

Miranda sighs. "Fine. This is entirely pointless you know. Revealing this information means that we'll just move them someplace else again."

I nod. "I know that. That's not the point."

Miranda rolls her eyes. "They're being held in apartment building #18 in the Residential District here on the Presidium."

"Thank you."

Miranda nods and stands. "If you'll excuse me. I have to contact my subordinates and tell them to move your friends."

Miranda walks away. I quickly touch my throat mic the second she's out of sight. "Vaga! Did you get that?"

I hear him chuckle._ "Yeah. We're on route now."_

"Alright you have 10 minutes at best to get there and find them."

"_Understood. Just stall Miranda until I tell you we have them."_

Miranda walks back into the room and I pretend that I am scratching my neck in an attempt to look nonchalant.

Miranda sits down. "Alright, now that we can trust each other, let's get down to business."

I nod, "Why don't we start with you telling me the details of the job?"

Miranda nods. "You'd be working directly with the Illusive Man as his personal soldier, representative, and liaison…"


	8. Chapter 8 SFAF Part 2: Vaga

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Hi ya guys!**

**First I just want to talk about this chapter a little. This chapter is extremely short, compared to my other chapters. This one is only like 10 pages. Which is short in my opinion. But this chapter is still really important.**

"**Betrayal is the only truth that sticks."**

**~Arthur Miller~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 8: Search for a Friend - Part 2<strong>

**Vaga**

**10:54 PM February 24, 2182**

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><p>… "<em>I know that. That's not the point."<em> Jackson says. Vaga closes his eyes, listening intently.

"_They're being held in apartment building #18 in the Residential District here on the Presidium."_

Vaga stands from his kneeling position and his squad all jump to attention. "Apartment building #18 in the Residential District on the Presidium."

The merc leader, a grizzled human called Wolf, gives a sharp nod and signals his squad to get into their shuttle. Vaga enters the shuttle and takes a seat next to Wolf, with the rest of the squad sitting across from them.

Vaga hears Jackson over his radio. _"Vaga! Did you get that?"_

Vaga chuckles at his urgency. "Yeah. We're on route now."

"_Alright you have 10 minutes at best to get there and find them."_

Vaga nods. "Understood. Just stall Miranda until I tell you we have them."

Vaga looks up at the Wolf who looks at him expectantly. "Now that the location of the hostages have been revealed, we have 10 minutes at the most to get there, get in, find the right apartment, then get out."

Wolf gives another sharp nod and looks at his squad. "Alright listen up!"

The squad looks up at him, eager.

"We have 10 minutes before the hostages are moved. Now, we know what apartment building they're in. But we don't know which apartment. Here's what we're gonna do. Mr. Kotka. First thing's first. If you want to involve yourself in this op, then you'll follow my orders. Is that clear?"

Vaga nods immediately.

Wolf nods back. "Good. Then your job is to go on the adjacent building to the west of our target. Use your sniper rifle and scan the windows and see if you can find the right room. Keep a sharp eye on the roof and on the sky. They'll probably lift them out from the roof. Don't stray from your objective. Understand?"

Vaga nods again.

Wolf nods satisfied. "Good."

Wolf points at one of his squad members, a krogan. "Pyjak. I want you to search the bottom floor of the building and see if you can learn anything from the workers. When we find the room, stay on the ground floor. It's possible that they'll try to escape on foot."

Wolf points to another one of his squad members, a turian. "Bandit. You have the same job as Mr. Kotka, but you'll be on the eastern adjacent building. I also want you to keep an eye on the street. If you see people trying to escape, shoot to kill. It's quite possible that they'll try and use decoys. We're dealing with an organized crime group here."

Wolf points at the final member of his group, his younger brother. "Hawk. You'll be checking rooms with me. No civilian casualties. Fight if fired upon. You have the lower half of the building. Understand?"

Hawk nods.

Wolf pulls his assault rifle from his back and checks the heat sink. "Everybody has their assignments. We have seven minutes. Vaga and Bandit. Stay in the shuttle. The pilot will drop you off at your assigned buildings. We're here."

The shuttle touches down in front of the apartment building, Wolf, Hawk and Pyjak all hop out and enter the building. The shuttle takes off again and lands on a building nearby.

The pilot looks over his shoulder at Vaga. "This is your stop."

Vaga hops out and draws his sniper rifle. He walks over to the edge of the building and lies down flat on his stomach. He quickly begins to scan the building.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Pyjak stomps into the lobby. The sight of three fully armed and armored mercs is a sight that the clerks and busboys aren't accustomed to.

Wolf and Hawk go straight toward the elevators. Pyjak stops in the middle of the lobby and takes a look around. All the workers stare at him wide eyed, or rather, at his drawn dual snub-shotguns.

One bold desk clerk speaks up. "C-can I help you?"

Pyjak looks over at her. He walks up to the front desk and places his shotguns on the counter and leans against it. The counter creaks against his weight and the clerk's eye shoot in between the shotguns and Pyjak.

"Hi there." Pyjak starts off rough, and the clerk jumps. "I'm looking for somebody. Well two people actually. Have you seen a quarian and an infant krogan at all?"

The clerk opens her mouth but no words come out. Finally she finds her breath and responds. "Uh. No, nobody like that."

Pyjak frowns. He gently places a hand on one of his shotguns. "You sure?"

"P-positive."

"Hmph." Pyjak takes his hand off of his shotgun and the clerk sighs in relief. "How about any human soldiers? Before today I mean."

The clerk thinks for a second. "Well actually, there was some guy in armor who came through here a few days ago. He asked for a key to a room and paid for three months in advance."

"Which room?"

The clerk raises her hands and backs away from the counter a little. "I-I'm sorry I can't say."

Pyjak sighs in mock disappointment. "Have it your way."

He places his hands on his shotguns and pulls away from the counter.

The clerk snaps. "Wait! Please don't kill me! He got room 618!"

Pyjak holsters one of his shotguns and tosses the clerk a credit chit. "Thanks for your help."

Pyjak opens his comm and contacts Wolf. "Boss, it's Pyjak. Check room 618."

"_Roger. Stay at your post. Let no one in or out."_

"Understood."

Pyjak draws his other shotgun and takes a seat in an armchair so he can watch the entrance and elevators. The workers all stare at him still, except for the clerk who stares at her credit chit with a smile.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Wolf walks out of room 501, much to the relief of its current resident, an old man who is making Red Sand.

"_Boss, it's Pyjak."_ Wolf raises a hand to his ear. _"Check room 618."_

Wolf nods. "Roger. Stay at your post. Let no one in or out."

"_Understood."_

Wolf lowers his hand and starts jogging toward the stairs with his assault rifle at the ready. He takes the stairs three at a time, making it to the next floor with impressive speed. He runs quickly down to room 618 and takes position next to the door.

Wolf turns and levels his assault rifle with the door. He raises his foot and kicks the door in. Wolf quickly rolls into the room and topples a small table for cover.

Shouts of alarm sound around the room. Wolf risks a peek around the side of the table and sees a few soldiers in silver and black armor take cover behind pieces of furniture with their weapons leveled at the door.

Wolf raises a hand to his ear and whispers into it. "Hawk. I need backup. I found the room. Room 618. Mr. Kotka, I'm in room 618. It should be facing the western side. Take out a few tangos for me."

"_Roger."_

A few seconds pass. The soldiers in the room are mumbling amongst each other. Apparently they don't know where Wolf is.

Suddenly the sounds of a gunshot, a window shattering, and a scream of pain all sound almost simultaneously. Shouts of alarm occur again and Wolf rises out of cover and begins shooting at the soldiers who are confused at who they should shoot at.

A second set of assault rifle fire joins Wolf's from behind him and he looks over his shoulder at Hawk who is standing in the doorway and gunning down the silver armored soldiers with precise bursts of fire.

The last soldier dies as a sniper round rips through his helmet. Wolf motions Hawk forward and keeps his rifle leveled at the door on the left side of the room. Hawk moves forward cautiously and peeks into the doorway. He raises his hand and motions Wolf forward.

Wolf takes position of the other side of the doorway and they aim their rifles down the short hall. The hallway has two doors, one on either side of the hall.

Wolf raises a fist and gestures at the door on the left. Hawk nods and moves down the hall toward the door on the left. He opens the door and quickly scans the room. He straightens and looks back at Wolf.

"It's clear, it's just a bath-"

Hawk is interrupted as a torrent of assault rifle fire rips through his shields and into his back. Forcing him into the bathroom.

"No! Andrew!" Wolf charges forward and tackles the soldier who shot Andrew as he exits the room on the right.

The soldier falls to the ground and Wolf rips his helmet off of his head. He uses it and his free fist as weapons and begins beating the murderer's face with them.

Suddenly Wolf feels an arm wrap around his neck and pull him off of the dead soldier. Wolf struggles against his assailant but he feels a long blade enter his neck just above the clavicle from behind and impale the right side of his neck.

Wolf struggles and blood dribbles out of his mouth onto the arm of his assailant. The assailant jerks Wolf back suddenly so that he faces the bathroom.

Wolf sees Andrew with his pistol raised. His arm is shaking violently and blood gushes from the gaping hole in the middle of his torso and from his mouth.

Wolf coughs out a mouthful of blood and inhales as best he can. He raises one arm over his head and grabs the arm that has a hold of the knife. The assailant curses and struggles. Wolf uses his other arm and throws his elbow into his assailant's side. The assailant grunts and loosens his grip. Wolf pushes himself away and falls into the bathroom next to Andrew.

Andrew doesn't waste the opportunity and he fires his weapon into the soldier's head. The soldier collapses dead on the ground and Andrew lets his hand fall to the ground.

Wolf coughs another mouthful of blood onto the blood-soaked floor. "Looks like this is it, huh?"

Andrew nods. "Looks like it. I'm glad you led, Ed. You're good at that. Terrible fucking shot though."

Edward chuckles and more blood spills from his lips. "Asshole. Always have a plan B, that was why I'm a good leader."

Andrew lets his eyes close. "Always have a plan B. Time for plan B then, Wolf?"

Wolf nods. "Yes it is, Hawk. You know the drill."

Wolf lifts his hand and Hawk claps his hand into it. Then they both raise pistols to the other's head.

"1…" Wolf says closing his eyes.

"Two..." Hawk says his finger tightening on the trigger.

"Three!" They shout in unison, pulling the triggers of their guns in perfect sync.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Bandit touches his communicator. "Boss! Boss! Come on Boss. What's going on?"

No reply.

"Dammit." Bandit opens his omni-tool and links it with Wolf's heart monitor. Flat-lined.

"Fuck!" Bandit throws his sniper rifle onto the ground and buries his face in his hands. He opens his omni-tool again and checks the heart monitors of the other squad members.

Pyjak's is normal, for a krogan at least.

His is normal.

Hawk is… flat-lined.

Bandit sighs and rubs his tired eyes.

He picks up his sniper rifle again and touches his communicator. "Pyjak. Come in."

"_What's up? Wolf ordered radio silence unless it's important."_

Bandit sighs and lowers his head for a second. "The Boss and Hawk are dead."

There is a long pause. _"Fuck. Just… fuck…"_

Bandit straightens and takes a deep breath. "I don't want to die here for something like this. We're getting out of here."

"_Sounds good to me. This isn't worth dying over."_

"I'll bring the shuttle around. You're still in the lobby?"

"_Yeah it's been pretty quiet so far. Nobody has come in or-"_

Bandit frowns. "Pyjak?"

He hears Pyjak's voice from the other side but it is slightly muffled. _"Get the fuck off of me! I'll fucking blow you apart if you don't get-"_

"Pyjak!"

Bandit looks down at his omni-tool, at Pyjak's heart rate. It's going extremely fast. Then it slows to normal. Bandit breathes a sigh of relief, too soon. Pyjak's heart rate continues to slow, then it flat-lines.

"Pyjak?" Bandit lowers his hand after the only response is static. He sighs and straightens again. He turns to walk back to the parked shuttle, but stops dead in his tracks.

The shuttle is gone. In its place is a semi-circle of silver armored soldiers all with assault rifles raised.

Bandit looks at all of them, slowly. His eyes come to rest on one soldier as he walks from behind the circle toward Bandit. The soldier stops a meter from him and begins to glow with a biotic aura. Bandit raises his sniper at the biotic soldier, but the soldier raises his hand quicker and uses a biotic throw on him, sending him flying off of the building, then plummeting down 50 meters to the ground below.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Hello? Anybody? Hello!" Vaga shouts into his communicator. He looks through his scope at the building. Nothing.

Vaga lowers his sniper rifle. He can't wait anymore. Vaga turns to go to the stair well but stops when he see a dozen Cerberus operatives all with assault rifles raised at him.

One lowers his weapon and steps forward. "Surrender. You will be spared."

Vaga looks them all over. He scowls and lowers his head, then drops his sniper to the ground.

The operatives all approach cautiously one removes his assault rifle from his back and the others restrain him and drag him back toward the shuttle where the original pilot waits.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

I stare blankly at Miranda as she continues to talk. And talk. And talk…

She stops abruptly as her omni-tool begins beeping. "Ah it appears everything went exactly as planned."

I frown and sit up. "Huh? Planned? What are you talking about?"

"I knew you were recording this conversation. I knew that you would dispatch you Fornax friend to save your friends. The location I gave you was a fake, a trap for your friend to walk into. We now captured him as well."

Why didn't I see this happening? I'm smarter than this! What the hell?

Miranda shrugs. "I don't know why you didn't see that coming. You seem to have knowledge about our organization, and you're not stupid. Frankly this was an obvious ploy, you were a fool to not see it."

Damn my inner monologue… but that's not important! "Why?"

Miranda stands and smiles. "Since we trust each other now, I'll be honest with you. The Illusive Man doesn't really want to hire you. We know that you're… different. Neo-Human, if you will. We want to know why, and how."

Ah, so they want to poke and prod me? "Why take Vaga?"

"Two reasons. First, now there is no one to save you since we will be taking you by force." I look over my shoulder and see a three Cerberus soldiers walk into the room with weapons at the ready. The other patron and the bartender both draw weapons as well.

Miranda continues. "Second. It gives you a reason to come with us willingly. We know that you're a formidable fighter so the more peace there is between us the better, wouldn't you agree?"

Two of the soldiers walk up to me and grab my arms. I scowl at Miranda. I glance over my shoulder at the window. Looks breakable. But…

"Okay. I won't fight."

Miranda smiles quite wide. "Excellent. The Illusive Man will be pleased."


	9. Chapter 9 SFAF Part 3: Rescue

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Say what? This chapter is quite a whopper. 8000+ words. INSANITY! Hardest Workout of my life. Sorry, I'm getting distracted. **

**Alright! It's official: Part one of Mass Effect: Massive Shock is 30 chapters and 541 pages long. It's time to get to work on Massive Shock 2: Infinite Mass... I just now came up with that title. It's kind of crappy... like Massive Shock. Whatever. It'll be out... 22 weeks from now! Heh... that's long enough to get a fan base right?**

**I'd like to talk a little politics for a little, if you'll indulge me: Recently, I looked in on the SOPA and PIPA bills... Do you guys like this story? Do you guys like writing and reading fan fiction? Well I'm not sure exactly if they affect me but knowing the US government I wouldn't be surprised if fan fiction is put in jeopardy. Websites like Grooveshark and Youtube will be permanently shut down. That is incentive enough, really.**

**My fellow Americans, we must stand up and fight to restore our rights that the US government promised us 200 years ago. Send a letter or email of disapproval to your state representative or senator. Attend a protest. Do something to save the interwebs! **

**My international readers: Disregard this complaint.**

**Phew... Got a little intense there. I realized that I had my fist raised in righteous anger half way through writing that. Anyways thanks for reading, reviewing, and favoring. Please keep doing all those things!**

**Love**

**Mockingbird79**

"**There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."**

**~Leonard Cohen~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 9: Search for a Friend - Part 3<strong>

**Rescue**

**2:12 AM February 25, 2182**

* * *

><p>"So, Miss Lawson… Where do you spend your summers?"<p>

No response…

"I keep busy."

Ah there we go. She's not totally socially inept then. Her voice is slightly muffled by the black cloth bag over my head. Just after we reached the shuttle, Miranda's goonies took off my helmet and put a bag over my head. Not before snapping a picture of my face however.

I'm terrible at estimating time but I think we've been traveling anywhere between 5 minutes and… a couple of hours or so. Of course time seems to slow down in an environment so awkward it could support awkward based organisms. At the speeds modern vehicles travel, we must be going far. Or maybe they're flying around in circles for a little (or a lot) to try and throw me off. Well it won't work!

I try and struggle with the ties binding my hands together in front of me and I shake my head violently in an attempt to get this hood off.

"Hey! Quit that!" The guard on my right exclaims before slapping me upside the head. I hear the guard on my left shift in his seat. There are five people in this shuttle total. Myself, the two fully armored Cerberus guards, Miranda, and the pilot, who is separated from us by the cockpit.

"Ah! Fine!" I sit still and sigh, half because I feel beaten and half because I'm bored.

"So Miss Lawson, what kind of tests will be performed on me?"

Silence for a second…

"I'm not at liberty to say."

"Aw come on! I thought we trusted each other! Alright, then answer this for me: How long until you release my friends?"

"We'll release the quarian and the infant after a week of your incarceration. The turian will remain in custody as long as you are."

I see, as incentive. "Then how long will I be in custody?"

"Until we find out why you are the way you are."

A thought comes to my mind. "The way I am? Do you mean my 'exceptional biotic and tech abilities?'"

Miranda lets loose a sarcastic chuckle. "No that was a lot of bullshit. We did that to throw you off, think we were misinformed. No we know that you're somehow able to shoot fire from your hands and teleport. We want to know how. In fact, we will be traveling for a little while longer why don't you indulge us?"

I hear the guards shift in their seats. Apparently they want to know too. I might as well tell them the truth then. "Oh alright. I'm actually from an alternate universe. I was brought to another universe a little over 6 years ago one where I was trapped in an underwater city, in which I changed my genetic structure using recycled slug blood so that I can do the things you have seen. After exactly 6 years of surviving in the city, I was again transported to this universe. And for the past two months I've been making a name for myself in this universe as the hitman: Splicer."

The cabin is dead silent. Then I hear Miranda let out a disappointed sigh. "I see. Don't worry Mister Jackson we'll get the truth out of you."

I laugh. Oh those fools. I guess my life's story is a little farfetched. Little do they know that I plan on escaping the second that they take their eyes off of me and then, with luck, I'll escape wherever they're taking me with Nata and Hirvio... and Vaga, I almost forgot him for some reason.

They took my guns, but they failed to take my EVE hypos away from me. Funny too, they're in plain sight, lining my left pauldron. I guess they think it's just some fancy addition to my armor. Well they think they've taken all of my weapons away from me but I still have my most powerful weapon of all: Me! Wow… I am really conceited…

"Miss Lawson?"

The guard who has quickly become my best friend groans next to me. "Would you just shut up?"

"No. Where are you taking me?"

Silence for a moment. "A Cerberus research facility."

Hey hang on! "Are we not on the Citadel anymore?"

"Correct."

"How is that possible? I thought no ships were allowed to enter or leave the Citadel? I didn't even feel a mass relay jump." Not that I know what one feels like seeing as how I never left the Citadel before.

"Nothing is impossible. You of all people should understand that."

I nod. Let's see if I can elicit some information from her. "You said earlier that you'd release Vaga when I am no longer incarcerated right?"

Silence. "Right."

"Well could you clarify something for me then?"

"If it will shut you up then yes."

I smile unconsciously. "These tests you'll be performing. Will they kill me?"

Silence for a long while, and then I hear Miranda start to laugh. "Mister Jackson, take solace in knowing that you'll be spending your last few weeks with friends."

Yes! They're keeping Nata, Hirvio and Vaga on this research vessel as well! IDIOTS!

"What did you just call me?" The guard next to me hits me in the stomach with his elbow then his bashes me on the back of my head with his rifle.

Stupid inner monologue… hopefully they only heard that last statement.

"I'll show you who's an idiot!" My guard friend pulls me off of my seat and onto the floor of the shuttle he then starts beating me mercilessly. All I can do is try and protect my head. The guard is mostly just bashing me with his rifle, but I hear him throw it to the side. A pause in the beating makes me believe that it has ceased, but I feel something hard hit my ribs, probably his helmet, and then I feel his hard toed combat boot kicking me in the stomach and ribs.

I am mentally begging Miranda to stop the beating, but she remains silent. I'll bet she's smiling.

The guard beating me finally gets some sense and kicks me in my semi-exposed face, his foot connecting with my nose so hard that it loosens the hood and it flies off of my head. I feel blood spurt from my nose and bile rises in my throat from the sheer pain. I cough violently and I taste blood in my mouth. I spit and look up at my assailant. The guard looks down at me with pure hate, his teeth clenched into a sinister snarl.

He leans over and pushes me over onto my back. "Who's the idiot now, huh?"

The guard straightens and lifts his foot to deliver a curb stomp to my face. His foot comes down toward my face, but I catch it with my bound hands. I grunt and push him away from me. He crashes into the wall of the cabin and I cough violently. Isn't anybody going to stop this?

"You son of a bitch!"

I cough and attempt a smile. "You think that was bad you cowardly fucker? Untie me and I'll show you who the bitch is!"

I punctuate my statement by spitting a mouthful of blood onto his face.

The guard roars, taking a step forward to attempt another curb stomp.

"Aaron! Stop!" I hear a deep voice say from behind me. The other guard gets up from his seat and throws his helmet off. He pushes Aaron against the wall and fights to keep him restrained.

"Get off me Taylor! That bastard deserves it!" Aaron tries to push past the other guard named Taylor. Wait… nah it's just a coincidence.

"Dammit Aaron! He didn't do anything to you! So help me Aaron…" Taylor glows brightly with a biotic aura and holds a fist up to Aaron's face.

Finally Miranda intercedes. "Jacob! That's enough! Both of you! Mister Aaron, back to your seat! You too Jacob!"

The quarreling pair separate and Aaron retrieves his helmet and rifle and he returns to his seat.

Huh, I thought his name was Taylor not Jacob… Wait a minute… Wait a minute! Jacob Taylor!

Jacob turns and bends down to help me up. He helps me to my feet and supports me as I double over in pain. I look up and get a good look on his face. It's him! Wow, this galaxy is really small…

"Miranda, he looks bad. Eddy! You took it too far dammit!"

I hear Eddy Aaron grunt but remain mostly silent.

I have trouble formulating a sentence. "Y-you're Jacob Taylor…"

Jacob backs away and looks at me confused. "How do you know me?"

Miranda waves him off. "Don't think too much on it Jacob. He works for the Shadow Broker. He probably knows about all of us."

I nod and smile. "Yeah, like Eddy Aaron over there. I know he's a real cock-sucker."

Eddy Aaron stands and tries to attack me again but Jacob stops him. "Mother fucker! I'll fucking kill you!"

Jacob grunts with effort. "Eddy! Stop!"

Then what happens next seems to slow everything down. It's like everything happens at once.

Eddy draws the pistol on his hip and raises it at me from under Jacob's arm. Jacob spots it and tries to push him down. Miranda stands reaching a hand out, her mouth forming the words "No don't!"

I see this all as an opportunity.

I rush forward and disarm Eddy Aaron of his pistol as it levels with my chest. I spin around and whip Miranda across the head with it before she can react, knocking her out cold. I then spin again and put my bound hands over an unaware Jacob's head and onto his throat from behind him, with my pistol pointed at Eddy's unarmored head.

Things return to normal speed. Eddy Aaron looks at me shocked and he slowly raises his hands into the air. Jacob coughs and struggles against my hands around his neck.

I motion at the discarded rifles on the floor of the cabin. "Eddy would you be a dear for once and kick those rifles over to me. And keep your hands up."

Eddy keeps his hands raised and kicks the rifles over to Jacob's feet. "Thanks Eddy."

I then shoot him in the head with my pistol. Jacob shouts in pain.

Whoops, the proximity of his ear and the gun was a little too short. "My bad Jacob."

I loop my hands off of his throat and kick him to the other side of the cabin. He trips over Eddy's corpse and falls onto the seat we were on sitting before. Jacob turns over and looks at me with shock and confusion written on his face.

I look down at the ground and pick up Jacob's helmet off of the ground.

I toss it to him and he looks down at it then back up at me in further confusion. "Put it on."

Jacob does as commanded and puts on his heavy assault helmet. After he's done he puts his hands in the air again.

Time to get cool and cryptic. "Thanks for helping me Jacob. You're not a bad guy. I'm not going to kill you, or Miranda, as much as I want to. You two are destined for great things. I'll be seeing you."

I raise the pistol and shoot Jacob in the head. His helmet takes the full force of the projectile, but the concussion knocks him unconscious. Just in case I walk over and remove the helmet. I check his pulse.

I sigh in relief. I really shouldn't have risked that. Huh, quality armor. I turn around and crouch next to Miranda. I fish around in her pockets and find the key to my cuffs. I unlock them and toss the pistol to the side. I'd prefer my more powerful revolver-like handgun. My gun wouldn't have been stopped by a helmet. Let's see, where'd they put my stuff…

I pull the last of my taken equipment, my helmet from the overhead compartment, and put it on.

I jump as the pilot speaks over the intercom. "Miss Lawson, we're approaching the station. ETA 5 minutes."

I frown. The cockpit must be sound proof or something. I draw my pistol and open the cabin.

I walk inside and observe the pilot flying the ship. She's clearly Japanese and actually quite pretty. Not my type though. She's fairly tan and her very long hair is pulled back in a loose ponytail.

I draw my pistol and point it at the back of her head. "Hey."

The pilot jumps and looks over her shoulder, her eyes widen at the sight of me. "… I'm going to kill you…"

The pilot starts shaking and looks away from me. "… But, I don't know how to fly this thing. So if you land this thing on the station, and you don't try to resist or anything, then I'll just knock you out with a minor electric shock. Don't worry you won't feel it. Do we have a deal?"

The pilot gulps but nods.

"Good." I holster my pistol and the pilot lets a breath she'd been holding out.

I hold out my hand to her. "Name's Splicer. How about you?"

The pilot looks at my hand for a few seconds before taking it. "Jin Fushima."

I nod. "What can you tell me about this research station we're going to?"

"It's a relatively new facility in the Hades Gamma system. It doesn't have a project devoted to it yet but I think Miranda was going to head yours."

Wow a whole project just for little old me. "What was the project going to be called?"

Jin thinks for a second. "I think it was the Darwin Project. I think the goal was to find a way to evolve the human race."

Wow. I wouldn't say that I'm, in Miranda's words, Neo-Human. I'd hardly call myself human anymore; my genetic structure is more fucked up than a street corner whore who sells herself for pleasure.

"I'm sorry?"

Sigh… I'm not going to get mad at you anymore Inner Monologue, it's not really your fault.

"Who are you talking to? Who's Inner Monologue? Are you talking to yourself?"

Fucking Shit! Why? Why Inner Monologue? Why?

I look down at Jin who's looking at me confused. "Just forget that."

Jin shakes her head and looks back out the window. She points at a speckle quickly growing in the distance. "Look there it is."

As the station grows I notice that it looks similar to the station the Lazarus Project was housed in. If it is similar in structure and organization, then I shouldn't have too much trouble getting out.

Hopefully I can find Nata, Hirvio and Vaga before a station wide alarm.

"Actually I think I could help you with that."

Damn you inner monologue, but you may have yielded benefits this time, so truce… for now…

"What could you do to help me?"

Jin is hesitant, clearly, but she seems willing to help. At least not everybody in Cerberus is bad. "I think I could give you the Level 5 security access codes to the facility. Also there's a docked ship in the secure hanger on the top deck of the station. It's state of the art so it should out run anybody who comes after you."

I look at Jin surprised. "You're rather… forthcoming with this information."

Jin shrugs. "Cerberus pays well, but not that well. They expect me to turn a blind eye to the atrocities that they do? I don't fucking think so. And you have a gun."

I place a hand on Jin's shoulder. She's just gained a lot of respect in my book. "Listen Jin. I can't thank you enough for this help. If there's ever anything that you need, just find me on the Citadel after this."

Jin shakes her head. "I don't know if I'll live to see that day. Cerberus has sharp eyes and ears, they'll find out I helped you."

I straighten. "In that case, then I think I'll need a good pilot to fly me out of here. You'll be paid quite handsomely and when we get back to the Citadel, you can keep the ship."

Jin looks around at me wide-eyed, then her eyes brighten and she grows a huge smile. "You got yourself a deal, and a pilot."

I hold out my hand. "And a friend."

Jin looks up at me again and smiles. She claps her hand into mine and then refocuses on the station. I step into the shuttle cabin and start stripping Eddy of his armor. Jin looks a little shorter than him, but this should do.

After a moment Jin walks into the cabin. "The automated docking sequence is doing the job and… what are you doing."

I straighten and start handing Jin pieces of armor. "Listen, I had an idea. You're going to disguise yourself as Eddy and you're going to guide me through the station toward the cell blocks as your 'prisoner.' They'll figure us out when we start breaking out my friends; do you know how to use a gun?"

Jin starts putting on the armor. "Uh yeah but…"

I pick up one of the assault rifles and the pistol and hand them to her. "Good. You'll be a big help then."

Jin finishes putting on the armor and attaches the weapons to it. "Damn! This armor is so heavy!"

I hand her Eddy's helmet and she reluctantly puts it on. "How do I look?"

"Like an asshole. But it'll do."

I feel the shuttle hit the ground. "Quick! Put on my cuffs but give me the key. You know you're way around the station, right?"

"Well enough." Jin reattaches my handcuffs behind my back and places the key in my palm. "Ready?"

I nod. "Oh wait! Take my weapons off of me and… put them in that case there!"

I gesture with my head at a metal case sitting above the seat Miranda is sprawled in front of.

Jin steps towards it but kicks Miranda by accident. "Whoops."

She reaches for the case and pulls it out of its compartment, but the latches must've not been on right because the contents, what appear to be a lot of books come falling out onto Miranda.

"Whoops…" Jin says again, staring down at Miranda. She then dumps the remainder of the books onto Miranda then puts my assault rifle, shotgun, and handgun into a metal case. "What about your helmet?"

I shrug. "Just leave it on."

She nods. "Alright, let's go."

Jin places a hand on my bound hands with her other hand holding the metal case. She hits a button and the door swings open. She pushes me out and quickly closes it. There aren't many people in the hanger, one dockworker and two armed guards. These guards however are dressed in the simple Cerberus uniform that most wore on the Normandy SR-2. Wow, the Illusive Man can't bother with a fashion change every couple years or so?

Jin guides me down to the doors the guards are guarding. They salute her and she opens her omni-tool. She types into it for a few seconds. One guard opens his omni-tool and looks at it for a second. The guard nods and motions for us to move on with his rifle.

Jin hurries me through the door and we enter a long empty hallway. "Come on."

As we jog down the hallway I realize that this is in some ways similar to Star Wars! That makes me Chewie! Cool.

We enter and Jin pushes the button for the detention level, which happens to be level 83, two levels before the top floor: 85, which according to Jin is where the state of the art ship is.

We begin the long agonizing trip to level 83 from level 33.

I begin unlocking my cuffs. "Open the case. We'll just fight our way from here."

Jin nods and opens the case. She hands my weapons to me one by one after I uncuff myself. I check the sinks on each one before attaching them to my back, except for my shotgun which I keep at the ready.

After an agonizingly long elevator ride we reach level 83 and the doors slide open.

I motion Jin forward and we proceed into a very large circular room with a console in the center and a worker at the console. There are several long, cell-lined corridors attached to the room.

I walk up to the worker and vault over the console. He chokes on his beverage as he takes notice of me. "What the hell? Who the hell are-"

I interrupt him by pointing my shotgun at his face. "I won't blow your head off if you cooperate. Find three prisoners. Nata the quarian… I forget her last name, the infant krogan, and Vaga Kotka the turian."

The worker nods and types furiously at the console. Finally he turns back around and jumps as he looks down the barrel of my shotgun.

He gulps and points down a corridor. "The quarian and the infant krogan are together down that hall in cell 18F." He points to another corridor. "The turian is down that one in cell 12D."

I gesture at the console with my shotgun. "Unlock their cells."

He types a little into it. "Done."

I grab his shoulder and give him a minor shock with my Electro Bolt and he falls unconscious.

I point down the hall leading to Vaga. "Jin, go get Vaga. I'll get Nata and Hirvio. He's a turian, with silvery skin and black face paint."

Jin nods and runs down the corridor towards Vaga's cell.

I turn and sprint down the corridor to Nata and Hirvio's cell. Let's see, 18A, B, C, D, E… F!

I skid to a halt and have to back pedal a little because I was going so fast. I run up to the cell which has a glass wall blocking my path to my friends. Inside I see Nata holding a much larger Hirvio. Finally! I run up to the glass and bang on it with my fist. Nata looks up and stares for a few seconds in shock.

She then stands quickly and puts Hirvio down. I open the cell door and Nata collides into me in a very strong embrace.

"Dammit!" Sobbing staggers her voice. "What took you so long?"

I chuckle. "If Vaga hadn't had to go and get himself captured I might not have had to get myself captured as well."

Nata pulls away. "You were captured? How did you get away?"

I shrug. "A little of this and a little of that. I also had help with a Cerberus pilot."

Nata jumps back. "What? How could you trust him?"

"Don't worry Nata. She seems okay. Come on we have to go, we don't have much time."

Nata nods reluctantly and grabs Hirvio's hand. Together we run back down the corridor to the main room. I look around for Jin and Vaga but am surprised when they don't appear to be here.

"She seems okay huh?"

I frown. "Dammit! Where is she?"

I shake my head and toss Nata my handgun. "Wait here."

I run down the hall toward Vaga's cell, 12D. When I reach it, I am surprised to see Vaga holding Jin in a headlock with her assault rifle pointed at me.

"Get the fuck back you son of a… Jackson?"

Jin struggles against Vaga's arm. "See I told you."

Vaga releases Jin and walks up to me and he gives me a bro hug that I taught him. "Damn, I thought that you were a goner for sure!"

I laugh. "Me? They wanted me alive."

Vaga shrugs and looks over his shoulder at Jin who has removed her helmet and is coughing. "What about her? Can we trust her?"

I nod. "Yeah she's fine."

Vaga holds the assault rifle out to Jin again but Jin shakes she head. "No thanks. I'm a better shot with my pistol. You hang onto it."

Vaga repositions the rifle in his arms and nods at Jin. "Thanks."

I motion at Jin. "You should put your helmet back on."

Jin shrugs and tosses it aside. "Nah I can hardly breathe in that thing. Besides my shields are strong enough."

I nod and start jogging back to the main room where Nata is using my handgun to prod the unconscious worker. She spots us and tosses my handgun back to me. Nata then walks up to Vaga and gives him a quick hug. She eyes Jin ruefully but that's the extent.

We walk as a group back to the elevator, Nata trailing behind slightly with Hirvio. Jin hits the level 85 button and we begin the long and horribly uncomfortable trip upwards.

As we travel upwards, I keep an eye on the level indicator; each one says what the level's purpose is. We get to level 83 marked Reactor. Oh!

I hit the stop button and everyone looks at me confused.

"What are you doing?" Vaga asks as the door opens.

"Sending a message." I say with a sinister smile. "Wait here."

I run out of the elevator and into the massive Reactor and Drive Core room. I am flanked on either side by massive hydrogen cell reactors. At the other end of the room is a large Drive Core which I assume is what's keeping up the kinetic barriers around the station.

Alright… how do I get it to blow up? Well, I know that hydrogen is violently explosive. I don't know much about Element Zero other than that it's toxic.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?" I hear someone behind me shout.

I whirl around and drawing my pistol as I turn. I aim it at the engineer's head causing him to go wide eyed and raise his hands in fear.

I nod at the reactors. "How do you get these things to blow up?"

"Excuse me?" He asks confused.

"You heard me." I say tightening my grip on my pistol.

He gulps. "Why would I tell you that?"

I chuckle. "Because, if you don't tell me: I'll shoot you right here. If you do: I'll let you run off to have a chance at life… On second thought? Never mind."

I zap him with an Electro Bolt. He spasms and falls unconscious.

I take his omni-tool and look through the operations. His omni-tool can do a lot more stuff than mine. But… Ha! No games. What a loser.

I find an operation marked Reactor Coolant Levels. I select it and look over the confusing charts and operations. Vent heat… no that would probably be opposite to my goal… Maybe I should get Nata to help me? No, I want to do this myself… somehow. Uh… Oh! Jackpot!

I press the Eject Coolant button and large cylindrical containers are dropped from the Reactors.

I go to the Reactor Diagnostics operation. A small meter shows the reactor heat levels which are rapidly rising.

A red warning appears on the omni-tool. It reads:

_Warning!_

_Reactor Heat Levels approaching High Levels!_

_Please insert Coolant cylinders before Reactor Heat Levels reach Critical Levels to prevent permanent damage to Reactors!_

I select a new operation, Reactor Power Output. A large row of sliders show power level output for various levels. I push all of them up to their highest.

The Reactors suddenly light up like Christmas trees and start making a high pitched whining.

A warning automatically appears on the omni-tool:

_Warning!_

_Reactors are overheating! Approaching Critical Levels! Please shut off Reactors immediately!_

_Reactors will overload if not appropriately shut down, causing station wide destruction!_

_Time Remaining until Reactor Meltdown: 10 minutes and counting_

The lights shut off momentarily and turn red. A warning similar to the one on the omni-tool sounds over the PA system. I smile. They won't bother me after this!

I run back into the elevator and hit the button for level 85.

"What did you do?" Nata asks frightened.

"I set the Reactors to overload. We got 10 minutes." I say rechecking the time on the engineer's omni-tool. "Scratch that. 9 minutes and thirty seconds… now 25 seconds."

Nata looks at me surprised. "You got the reactors to overload? By yourself?"

I smile. "Impressed?"

"Sort of." She admits. "But what's going to stop them from just shutting off the Reactors?"

… "Damn…"

I open the omni-tool again… Uh… "Nata what happens if I make the Drive Core vent Element Zero?"

"The room would fill with Eezo vapors. Duh." She says sarcastically.

I roll my eyes. "Alright, but what would happen to people who go inside said room?"

She nods understandingly. "Oh I see! Depending on how much Eezo you vent, they would either get poisoned and take weeks to die, or they'd get vaporized."

I smile maliciously. I open the engineer's omni-tool and select the Drive Core operations. "How do I do this?"

Nata sighs. "First vent the Eezo."

I do as she says. "Now what?"

"Now close the exterior vents and open the Drive Core cooling elements."

I do that and look up at her.

"Now fill the Drive Core with new Eezo."

I fill it up full.

"Now vent it again."

I press the button but a warning appears. "Warning. Exterior vents shut. Venting Eezo now will contaminate Reactor Room 7. Proceed?"

She nods. "Do it."

I press the button that says yes and close the omni-tool. "Am I done?"

She nods. "Yep, anyone who goes in there will be instantly vaporized."

"Cool… Whoops…"

"What?" Jin asks me.

Yeesh… "I kind of left the engineer in the room… He's probably dead now. I suck…"

Nata sighs. "You should've told me that. I could've told you how to lock down the room so no one could get in."

"You opted for killing everyone over being merciful?" I shout at her. "I don't know who you are anymore…"

"You didn't give me another option!" She retorts. "I thought you wanted people vaporized!"

I shake my head and sigh. "Never mind. Just forget it."

There's a slight pause.

"You guys are strange." Jin says suddenly. "Just saying…"

We finally reach level 85 and we all exit into the large hanger.

I spot the shop we're supposed to steal and my jaw drops.

The ship is huge!

It's not nearly as big as the Normandy SR-2, but maybe just as big as the Normandy SR-1. Though not as long or sleek as the Normandy SR-1, this ship looks a lot tougher. Its wide nose and body make it look strong. The ship is also mostly black with blue wings and stripes on it. The ship is also docked differently too. This dock is more similar to Star Wars. The ship is landed in the middle of the room with a ramp coming out of the bottom that's only chest high for some reason. I can see however that there is a door on the side for docking in places like the Citadel. Oddly enough there isn't a Cerberus insignia on it.

Jin gestures to it. "That's our way out: The Gambit. I'll go in and prep the engines. Make sure nobody gets into the hanger."

Jin starts jogging toward the ramp. She climbs up onto it and enters the ship.

Just then bullets start to wiz past me and strike my shields. I see Nata protect Hirvio and duck behind some crates. Vaga dives behind a large motorized cart nearby. I duck behind some large metal crates as well. I peek over my cover and see… Dammit!

Miranda is leading a small squad of 9 armed soldiers into the room.

A realization dawns on me. Shit, we can't kill Miranda! "Vaga!"

He looks over at me.

"Don't kill Miranda!"

He nods, a little reluctantly and pops out of cover to shoot down one Cerberus soldier.

I poke out of cover and shoot my shotgun at the nearest soldier. The force of the shot takes him off of his feet, but only his shield is gone. I holster my shotgun and draw my pistol. As he rises to his feet, I carefully aim a shot and shoot him in the head.

My next target is a biotic who is pinning down Vaga with a torrent of biotic attacks. I see a stray crate in the hanger and I use Telekinesis to throw it at him. The makeshift projectile collides with his head and he is sent flying into a wall.

Vaga had managed to gun down two more soldiers, leaving just 4 plus Miranda.

I lean out of cover and hit one with Electro Bolt, eradicating his shield. Vaga follows up by delivering a burst of assault rifle fire into the soldiers head, replacing it with a red mist.

I switch to Incinerate and snap my fingers at another soldier who immediately bursts into flames. He dies pretty quickly after running around a little, leaving just two more soldiers.

"Guys! The ship is ready! Let's go!" I hear Jin yell from behind me. I turn and see Jin gesturing on the ramp. Some gunfire strikes her shield and she retreats into the ship.

I poke my head out of cover and see that the three remaining attackers are laying down suppressing fire. I groan and activate Insect Swarm. Once enough bugs are swarming around my hands I direct them at the trio. They fly towards them in a horde and distract them, especially Miranda who seems to be freaking out.

I turn back into cover and sprint and slide down next to Nata. "Nata! Go now!"

She nods and grabs Hirvio's hand. Together they run down to the ship, but are forced to hide again when bullets start striking the boxes around them.

I poke out of cover again and see that the two soldiers have figured out that bugs can't hurt them if they're wearing armor. Miranda however is nowhere to be seen. I rise out of cover but am unable to do anything as a torrent of assault rifle fire strikes my shield. I fall backwards as bullet clips my shoulder.

Shit! Ah. I look down at the wound. Just a graze. Should heal quickly. I resituate myself behind cover and fire blindly over it with my assault rifle. I peek over and see that I have a little opening as the soldiers are ducking behind cover again. I motion for Vaga to fall back.

He and I reach the ships ramp and we lay down covering fire for the others. Vaga hops onto the ramp and runs inside first because I think he got a little bullet graze on his arm. I see Nata nearby behind some boxes and I motion for her to get on. She runs up to the ramp and ducks down as I continue my suppressing fire.

I feel a hand on my shoulder. It's Jin.

"Get on! I'll help Nata and the kid up! Just lay down covering fire!"

I nod. She fires the assault rifle she got from Vaga at Cerberus while I hop up onto the ramp. I start firing with my assault rifle again and she throws her rifle onto the ground and hops off of the ramp and hurries to Nata and Hirvio.

Jin helps them to their feet and protects them with her body and her shield takes many hits but holds as they hurry to the ramp. Nata tries to lift Hirvio up onto the ramp but she isn't strong enough. Jin helps her in instead and picks up Hirvio to hand to her. Nata takes him.

The echo of three powerful hand-cannon shots ring out in the room. All three hit Jin. Two for her shield, one for her. The bullet hits her in her right shoulder, but angles inward slightly and exits in her mid-chest. She collapses forward and falls onto the chest high ramp. I jump down to protect Jin from further harm and look back at the Cerberus soldiers.

It seems that Miranda has rejoined them with some heavier firepower. I spot her frantically trying to cool her hand-cannon.

I throw a few Electro-Bolts their way and help Jin into the ship. After she's inside I run up the ramp and into the ship. The ramp leads to a cargo hold and I see Nata and Hirvio hanging around. Jin is on all fours clutching at her chest and coughing.

I kneel next to her. "Jin! Are you okay?"

She holds up a hand and staggers to her feet. "I'm fine. The suit applied medi-gel, I'm good. I can still fly."

We walk up some stairs towards the cockpit. "Are you sure? I'm sure Vaga knows a thing or two about flying…"

Jin holds up a hand again. "Save it. He's useless right now."

I glance over my shoulder and spot Vaga sitting in a chair around a galaxy map dabbing his graze with a cloth, muttering to himself. "It's good, it's good. Chicks dig scars, scars are badass… Oh god I hope this is a badass scar…"

I shake my head and follow Jin as she slumps into the pilot's chair. She starts the engines and the ship begins to float. She then guns the throttle and the ship rockets out of the hanger into space and toward a nearby mass relay.

A beeping sounds from a console in front of Jin.

She coughs into her hand and leans forward to take a look at the console. "Incoming attack ships. Splicer, get on the Defense guns and take them out."

I nod and run toward the back of the ship, past the galaxy map where there's an access ladder to the Defense guns on the top and bottom of the ship.

I climb the ladder to the top one and start shooting missiles at the incoming ships.

I fail miserably at the defense of the ship but they don't get too close. Then I realize there are targeting systems. Oh… That helps a lot actually. I dispatch three fighters before they're within firing range.

"Jackson!" I hear Vaga say over my communicator. "The reactor should meltdown in 10 seconds!"

I open the engineer's omni-tool. Sure enough it shows there are 6 seconds until meltdown. 5… 4… 3…

Crap. The omni-tool's red warning turns its normal orange color as another notification appears:

_Meltdown averted. _

_Remote reactor emergency shutdown from security hub accepted._

So much for sending a message.

After a few moments I hear Jin's voice over the intercom. "Hitting… the relay in five… four… three…"

A blue light surrounds the ship and in an instant we are in the Serpent Nebula, and the Citadel is in view.

I laugh in joy, yes! We made it! I slide down the ladder and run back to the cockpit.

I put a thankful hand on Jin's shoulder. "You did it, Jin! You're in for a huge payout!"

No response…

"Jin?"

Jin falls forward onto her controls.

Blood flows freely from her mouth, and pours from her wound, I examine the wound. No medi-gel! "No! Jin!"

I pull her out of the pilot's chair and place her on the floor and hail C-Sec through the comms. _"This is C-Sec traffic control. We apologize but we are only allowing government vehicles in and out of the Citadel due to docking malfunctions. Please return in one week."_

"I need help! Out pilot has been shot! We need medical attention!" I yell into the comm. "Please it's an emergency!"

"_Opening docking Cradle 12. Please approach. EMT's will be waiting for you."_

I turn on the automated docking program and carry Jin into the airlock. After a few agonizingly long moments the airlock activates and the door opens into the Citadel. I carry Jin out and an emergency medical team waits with a stretcher. I put her on the stretcher and they start running her away, performing tests along the way.

They stop halfway down the walkway however and take Jin off of the stretcher and place her on the floor. What the hell are they doing? Then I see one paramedic performing CPR on her while another preps a defibrillator.

Fuck…

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue… <strong>

"Nothing?"

The Cerberus soldier holds up the thick empty syringes that he found on the ground in the hanger. Miranda snatches it out of his hand and examines it. Empty.

"There might be some residue. Take it to the lab."

The soldier salutes and takes the syringes away. Miranda sighs and presses the ice-pack tighter against her throbbing head.

"Miss Lawson!"

Miranda turns around and looks at a soldier who is kneeling behind some crates.

Miranda sighs, rolls her eyes and walks over to the soldier. "What is it? This better be good…"

She stops when she sees that the soldier is kneeling next to a small bloodstain no bigger than her hand, still fresh.

"I thought I shot him. I remember him going down for a second after a burst from my rifle." The soldier says backing from the bloodstain.

Miranda kneels down and takes a small pipette and a test tube out of her pocket. She takes as much of the blood as she can off of the floor and puts it in the test tube.

Miranda stands after getting the paltry amount into the test tube. Wait a moment…

Miranda cups her hand over the test tube and places it over her eyes. _Yes… it's glowing slightly. This is what we've been looking for… _


	10. Chapter 10 Red Metal

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

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><p><strong>AN: Hi everyone! **

**I'm posting this super early today, like exactly when Tuesday starts, 12 in the morning, because I'm going to be super duper busy today. Can you guess why? It's Valentine's Day, duh! I'll be busy ALL day so I won't get anything done, but I couldn't forsake you guys so I'm putting this out there now while I have a little time. So Happy Valentine's Day! Well... it is right now. If you're reading this in the future, then how could you do that? At the time it's the present right? So therefore this statement is in the past, but I just said you may read it in the future. So it's false? If I were a robot my head would've just exploded.**

**Well, I hope you guys have a great Valentine's Day, you lovers and haters out there. For all you Forever Aloners out there you're not alone. You got me! Love you! Big love to all you sexy sexy readers out there! Nothing a girl or guy loves more than sophistication and you're reading the most sophisticated literature out there! Nuts to Shakespeare this story has lightning and fire!**

** I feel a quick recap is in order here. I'll do this every 10 chapters for your benefit.**

**Alight so here's the skinny: On my seventeenth birthday I got sent to Rapture in the Bioshock Universe in 1962. After six years I find myself trapped in a living nightmare.**

**Then as Rapture sinks to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean I am again transported to another universe. This time however I find myself on the Citadel in the Mass Effect Universe in late December of 2181. Vague memories of the game let me recall that Mass Effect 1 takes place in 2183, allowing me an entire year to find a way to become part of this universe.**

** Since then I've made friends, become a mercenary, and even integrated myself into the events of Mass Effect 1 in some small way. Recently, however, I have made enemies with Cerberus, or rather they made enemies with me after they kidnapped my friends to find out the secret of my plasmids. I saved them and shown one of the most powerful organizations in the galaxy that I'm a force to be reckoned with. **

**I can feel that the Universe is changing just for me being here and I worry that my presence may tamper with the Balance. **

**Alright you guys are refreshed and rejuvenated, ready for some action?**

**Not yet! Two more things first:**

**First, I lied. This story is not 30 chapters. I hated how Ch. 30 turned out so I canned part of it and rewrote it. Now it's 32 or more chapters and whatever pages long. That's right! Two more chapters of content and plot! Excited? Wait like... 22 weeks and see!**

**Second, I've had this (probabl)y stupid idea. I was thinking about making this into an audio book. I'll read each chapter out loud, doing silly character voices and stuff, edited and mastered for clarity, and post them online for free. There'll be unedited versions as well filled with banter and commentary that I throw in there. Anyway it was just an idea. Not sure if I'll do it or not.**

**As always, write a review telling me what you all think about this chapter! This and the next chapters are lead ins to a 5 chapter long multi-part event that will blow your minds! Hope you all like it!**

**With Love, more strong than that of Goddess born from the castrated loins of Ouranos Aphrodite and her messenger slave Dwarf Cupid**

***Mockingbird79***

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><p>"<strong>A good name will shine forever."<strong>

**~Proverb~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 10: Red Metal<strong>

**?**

* * *

><p>"<em>Scream whelp. Scream!" The Grim Reaper's fingers stab into another part of my torso. I scream again and fill the Dark with my voice.<em>

_The Grim Reaper laughs. "You are finally ready."_

_I loll my head forward and stare into the eyes of the Grim Reaper, one cold and metal and red, the other a dark void. I try to speak but I am unable, as always._

_The Grim Reaper drops me onto the ground and it straightens. "It is time for you to do your part. We will come, ready for war. But they lie dormant. We will wake them. Together."_

_The Grim Reaper grabs my face and lifts my head up to look into his eyes. "Speak."_

_I gulp down blood. "Together…"_

_The Grim Reaper laughs, a vile sound. "You will fulfill your destiny soon, slave. Now… Sleep!"_

_The Noise returns and rips through my soul. I scream._

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><p><strong>5:14 AM February 28, 2182<strong>

I scream and sit up.

Mother fucker!

These dreams… I need help! I can't take it anymore! For the last few days, every time I fall asleep, I have a dream of that Place and each one is worse than the last. Ever since we got back from that Cerberus base, since Jin died.

I need professional help…

Hey… I have an idea…

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><p><strong>12:19 PM February 28, 2182<strong>

I finish the bowl of asari soup that I bought for lunch and toss it in the trash can near me. I have to say, asari cuisine isn't bad. It's more "elegant" than human food. But I didn't come here to sample the food.

I came to talk to the Consort.

Yep, that's right, I'm here outside the Consort Chambers to schedule an appointment with the Consort. From what I know it'll probably be a few months before I can see her. But, meh. I have time to kill before the attack on Eden Prime next year. Plus, if I can do some work for her or something then maybe she'll talk to me sooner.

I don't plan on having sex with her either. I never really thought that the Consort was attractive. Though I would say that she has quite a seductive demeanor. I won't fall prey though! I'm harder than steel… Not in that way.

I push myself off of the railing and take a breath of fresh air. I haven't been out of my armor much in the past couple of days so the cool air is refreshing. I can't wear it anyways, it's too damaged. I did a job just yesterday that involved a shipping container, a pack of rabid varren, and a frozen bag of peas that tore it to shreds but I don't like to think about it…

I need to get it repaired but the guy who made it for me is on an extended vacation, probably with the money I paid him too. I also need it refitted. It hardly fits anymore. My muscle mass has grown quite a bit in the last month or so. I'm actually looking a little more like my pre-Rapture self: tanner and more muscular. I'm taller than I was though which is a good thing. I guess the sudden muscle growth is from all the protein I've been getting from the Topari… No, that can't be it, I only discovered it a few days ago. Never mind…

I'll get to that later. For now I have to make an appointment. I take a few steps toward the building but stop to take a glance at the spot where I first woke up on the Citadel. Funny I've been here for almost three months and yet I have more questions than when I came here. Damn I have to stop getting side tracked!

I shake stray thoughts out of my head and walk into the Consort Chambers. I walk through the short hall and up to the asari greeter lady… oh yeah! She's the one that resuscitated me back when I almost drowned! Man that feels like it was ages ago.

The greeter smiles at me warmly. "Welcome, I am Nelyna. I don't recognize you as one of our scheduled appointments. Are you going to be making an appointment with the Consort today?"

I nod. "Yes. My name is Robert Jackson."

Nelyna nods and starts typing into her console. "Okay… I have your name on the list. It's going to be… oh… 8 to 10 months."

I nod, I expected as much. "How much will a session with the Consort cost?"

"For an hour long session, the normal rate is 6,700 credits."

I nod. "That'll be fine."

Nelyna smiles. "Okay. Then I guess I'll be seeing you again in a few months."

I smile back. "I guess so…"

I turn and start walking away. I stop.

Ah what the hell. I turn around and walk back up to her. "You don't remember me do you?"

Nelyna looks up at me confusion written in her eyes. Ew, I must sound like a creeper, better break the tension. "I didn't know that knowing CPR was a requirement around here."

Nelyna stares at me for a few seconds before her eyes brighten. There we go. "Oh! You're the guy who almost drowned a few months ago! I almost didn't recognize you, you look quite different!"

I smile. "I hope that's a good thing."

She laughs a little. "Oh it is. I remember you were quite scruffy when we first met. You looked like you were homeless to be honest."

I laugh. "I was, sort of, at the time. I'm doing much better for myself now, however."

Nelyna nods and keeps her smile wide on her face. "That's clear since you have money to spend on the Consort. What do you do now?"

"I'm a mercenary. I've actually become quite successful."

Nelyna gasps and feigns fear. "Oh! A dangerous mercenary in the Consort Chambers! How will we protect ourselves?"

I laugh. "Don't worry miss. Splicer doesn't harm innocents."

Nelyna drops the fake persona and looks at me in… awe? "You're Splicer?"

I raise my eyebrows. "You've heard of me?"

"Who hasn't?"

I can't help but hide my confusion. I'm famous? Who knew? Not me obviously.

Nelyna turns around and digs around in a cabinet. She pulls out an eBook and hands it to me. It's a newspaper. There's an article about me! With a picture of me in my armor! Luckily with my helmet on. It says:

_Notable mercenary, bounty hunter, and rumored hitman "Splicer" takes down serial killer Arthur Pendosa. Little is known about the mercenary, other than he gets quick and efficient results. In an interview with Executor Pallin of C-Sec, he said of the mercenary:_

"_If it weren't for Splicer, it is quite possible that more innocents would be dead. He managed to track down, and apprehend Mr. Pendosa in a matter of days without using any provided C-Sec resources and little information. While I don't entirely agree with his work ethic, I am impressed with his results. Granted he doesn't respect codes of conduct that all C-Sec officers follow, but he did manage to apprehend a dangerous fugitive without breaking any laws. I am disappointed that it had to come to hiring a mercenary to finish our detective's job, and hopefully it won't happen again. However, it is almost a guarantee that more work will be waiting for Splicer, if he chooses to accept it, or better yet put his skills to better use and join C-Sec."_

_Not everyone agrees with Pallin however. When we spoke to the detective in charge of the search for Arthur Pendosa, Detective Garrus Vakarian, he had only this to say on Splicer:_

"_He has no respect for law and order. I respect his skill and character. But I can't say that I approve of his chosen line of work nor do I approve of the results he brings. People seem to forget that he seriously injured the rest of Pendosa's gang._

_This reporter, and many other people all look forward to seeing Splicer in action again, fighting crime, and helping to keep the Citadel safe. As for the next time we see him in action, we'll try and get an interview._

_-Head reporter Khalisah al- Jilani, Westerlund News _

Wow, they made me sound really good in here. But al-Jilani did the report on me so I don't really know how things will turn out later. I have no doubt that she'll try to undermine C-Sec by making me look good. I know how to beat her though, just make HER seem like the bitch. Shouldn't be too hard seeing as she is one.

I hope I don't get TOO much notoriety from this though. Too much is always bad. It's a shame. Garrus doesn't like me and Pallin does. I always figured it would be the other way around.

I hand the datapad back to Nelyna who gladly accepts it. "Everyone was afraid to walk the streets at night because Pendosa was on the loose. People see you as a hero Mr. Jackson."

I hold up a hand. "Please, people have taken to calling me Jackson. That'll be fine."

Nelyna nods and smiles. "Alright Jackson. I have a question to ask, if you don't mind."

I scratch the back of my head and gesture for her to continue.

She puts the datapad back in her cabinet and faces me. "Why do you go by an alias? Wouldn't you want people to know your name?"

I smile and chuckle. This must be what a celebrity feels like, and I definitely don't feel like a celebrity. "The alias just kind of happened. Besides, I'm kind of glad people see that black armored mercenary as the celebrity and not me. I'm suddenly very thankful that I wear my helmet on jobs. I'm sure that your Consort, on some level, would like a quieter life than the one she lives now."

Nelyna thinks about my response for a moment before nodding in agreement. "That does make sense. So how busy are-"

"Nelyna!"

Nelyna turns around and faces the attendant that called her. "What is it Sarah?"

The human attendant named Sarah walks up and gives me a quick smile before facing Nelyna. "Nelyna, you're supposed to be taking appointments for the Consort and the other attendants and seeing your appointments. I have a client who's been asking for you for 10 minutes, and you've been talking to… this guy the whole time."

Nelyna blushes and averts her eyes from mine. "I'm sorry. I forgot. I'll get to the client right away!"

Sarah shakes her head. "Forget it. He's gone."

Nelyna looks at her a little shocked. "What? Oh no!"

Sarah looks at Nelyna apologetically. "I'm sorry Nelyna. The Consort wishes to speak with you."

I see a few tears roll down Nelyna's cheeks. She starts walking with her head down toward the stairs at the back that lead to the Consort's room.

Sarah turns to me. "I'm sorry, but I must ask you to leave now."

I look at her then at Nelyna who disappears behind the wall. "Hey is she going to get fired?"

Sarah give a reluctant nod. "It's a possibility."

I shake my head. "No it's my fault. I can't let the Consort fire her."

I push past Sarah and start jogging toward the stairs. I hear Sarah behind me shouting in protest but I ignore her. It's my fault that Nelyna was preoccupied not hers. Today's going to be a long day, I'm going to miss my haircut!

I enter the Consort's room and see Nelyna sitting across from the Consort at a table across the room. Both pairs of eyes look at me as I enter. Nelyna looks at me with an air of both confusion and gratitude, while the Consort stares with a sort of creepy intellect.

The Consort stands and takes slow sashaying steps towards me. "Ah. You must be Mister Jackson. Nelyna was just telling me that she was 'distracted by a famous person.' You must be quite a person then to distract my hand-picked attendants."

I ignore her statement. "Please. I was just thanking her for saving my life a few months ago and I was making an appointment. It's not her fault, Nelyna doesn't deserve to be fired for being friendly and welcoming."

I see Nelyna mouth "Thank you." behind the Consort, who is steadily approaching. "So you are Splicer then? The mercenary who tracked down Arthur Pendosa?"

I nod, reluctantly. Really the fewer people who know who I really am the better.

The Consort stops just inches away from me. She places a finger on her chin and looks me up and down.

She then waves a hand at Nelyna. "Leave us and return to your duties. See that we aren't disturbed."

I gulp. Uh oh… Nelyna stands and quickly hurries out of the room. The Consort takes a step away from me and gestures to a vacant chair.

I walk over and sit in it. The Consort paces around the room.

After a long silence, she finally speaks. "If the rumors are true, then you are not just a mercenary, correct? You are also a hitman?"

I nod but remain silent.

The Consort faces me. "Then I would have you assist me. A favor for a favor."

I nod again. "Who do you need taken care of?"

The Consort walks over and takes a seat across from me. "I have a problem that requires the upmost secrecy. A recent client of mine, a human by the name of Izar Rhodes has been making trouble with my attendants. Izar leads a local street gang that go by the name of 'The Colossuses.' They've tracked down and attacked several of my attendants and I fear for their safety. The last one they attacked was killed, supposedly by accident, but they've taken it too far. I want Izar and his whole gang eliminated. Can you do this for me?"

I nod. "Yes I can. But in return, I need questions answered. I have secrets that can never escape my lips but I'll tell them to you because I have nowhere else to turn. This simple task that you ask of me does not repay the service you will do for me after, but I will do anything that you require of me if you help me."

The Consort smiles and stands. "It seems that I may be helping you more than you help me, but we have a deal. Leave now. Do not return until you have completed your task."

I stand and leave the Consort's room. Looks like I may have my questions answered sooner than I thought. Hopefully I'll find the answers I'm looking for and not some cryptic response. And hopefully I can complete this mission soon. I have a feeling that my dreams will continue to haunt me for a long time. I walk down the stairs into the main room and I walk down to Nelyna who is typing into her console.

She looks up at me as I approach. She offers a smile, but nothing else. I guess that's for the best so I keep walking and I exit the Consort's Chambers.

If I'm going to be taking on a gang, I'll have to find somebody to repair my armor.

* * *

><p><strong>11:19 AM March 2, 2182<strong>

This can't be right…

I seem to have found myself in the slums of the Wards. Is this where my new armorer is supposed to be? I recheck the address on my omni-tool. Yep that's right.

I sigh, readjust my armor case in my hand, and walk into the semi-large shanty house. The interior is, thankfully, nicer than the exterior. The place is clean but the house is makeshift. The low-lying ceiling suggests that there's a second floor. I also spot a stairwell leading downwards just behind a table on the far side of the house.

I hear stuff coming from downstairs so I walk down the stairs and find myself in a small but sophisticated and neat workshop. I spot a krogan with his back turned to me. I can see a bright light coming from in front of him, but his body blocks whatever it is he's working on.

I clear my throat to get his attention. The krogan looks over his shoulder at me. He drops what he's doing and turns around to face me. This krogan is very muscular, but pretty short. His skin is a pale green with a nearly black head plate and scales with just the lightest green tint to it. He also has jagged shrapnel scars crisscrossing his face.

The krogan holds a hand out to me. "Nice to meet ya'. Jorgal Tyrannax, best weapons and armor smith in the Galaxy, at your service."

I take the offered hand and shake it, despite the crushing grip. Krogan really need to ease off of the tough handshake. His voice is interesting, it's far deeper and rougher than any krogan I've met before which is surprising.

I withdraw my hand from his grip and put my armor case on the table in between us. "My name is Splicer. I need my armor repaired and refitted, and I need it done as quickly as possible."

Tyrannax takes the case and opens it. "So you are Splicer. You are a fierce warrior you are a suitable person to make armor for."

Tyrannax starts removing pieces of my armor from the case. After he gets them all out he discards the case and examines a piece of my armor.

He suddenly lets out a disappointed sigh. "This is very poor craftsmanship. All bark no bite. All fashion, no function. I could make it ten times as effective and look ten times as intimidating."

He's certainly not lacking for confidence. "How much is this going to cost?"

Tyrannax rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Between supplies and service: Approximately 8,000 to repair and refit. In advance"

I frown. That's a lot cheaper than I thought it would be.

I transfer the funds to him, and Tyrannax nods. "Thanks. I'll have it done for ya' in at least a week. Come back tomorrow and I'll refit you."

"Wow you work fast."

Tyrannax shrugs. "Satisfaction is my third priority, behind keeping you from getting killed and behind getting paid."

I smile and turn to leave, when something catches my eye, a bunch of rolled up blueprints in a wastebasket. "What are these?" I ask, pointing at them.

Tyrannax looks up from my armor. "Those? That's just design ideas for armor upgrades that nobody wanted to buy."

I take an armful of blueprints out and carry them to a vacant table. "Do you sell many ideas to companies?"

Tyrannax adopts a hostile tone. "No! Nobody wants them! They think they're unorthodox, unnecessary, or too expensive."

I unroll a blueprint. It looks like a detailed design of a cool leg armor design. It looks like thick metal plates over small diamond interlocked alloy of some kind. For the calves it looks like very heavy armor that would give me incredible protection. Each piece is disassembled in layers showing various components and mechanisms. "Hey what's this?"

"Hm? Oh that's a 'kinetic distribution system.' It's kind of like fall shock absorbers like the ones on your armor, but those redirect kinetic force outwards. It pretty much takes the force of a fall and redirects it into a wave that blasts out from your armor. It may look really bulky and heavy but the alloy is actually iridium nano-fiber with aluminum tungsten composite. Very light and nearly impenetrable."

I look at Tyrannax stunned. "That's genius! Why didn't anybody want that?"

"They thought it was too unorthodox. They said that it wouldn't be a regular enough occurrence where your fall from a high drop into a group of enemies." Tyrannax shrugs.

"You'd be surprised! I'll take it!"

Tyrannax looks up. "Huh?"

"I want that on my armor! How much?"

Tyrannax looks at me surprised. "Uh, another 13,000?"

"Done!" I transfer the credits and go over the next blueprint. This one is of an awesome looking… face mask thing. "What's this?"

Tyrannax looks up. "Tactical hard-plate. It's a special kind of helmet that amplifies the shields around your head and gives you a sealed environment, without a bulky helmet. And it looks cool."

I laugh. I'll save that one for later… "Alright listen. I want you to go totally nuts with my armor. Use that iridium nano whatever for all of it and throw in a few upgrades too."

Tyrannax looks at me stunned. "R-really? That'll cost a lot!"

I shake my head. "Money is not an issue. I'm going to go through these blueprints and show you what I want."

Tyrannax nods enthusiastically. "Yeah! Absolutely! Oh man, this is great!"

* * *

><p><strong>7:23 PM March 13, 2182<strong>

Let's test this out!

I jump off of the 5 story building and plummet toward the group of about 10 or 12 Colossus gang members.

I land and my new kinetic distribution system kicks in. The force travels through my armor, making it look like it almost ripples. Then when it builds in small nodes on my chest, legs and back, it explodes outwards, taking all 19000 newtons of force from the fall and generating it out at the surrounding gang members.

Granted it has a limited range but the effect is awesome. The nearest gang members are taken off of their feet and the fall to the ground. The others just stumble back and are stunned… by my awesomeness.

I draw my pistol and my knife and prep my Aero Dash plasmid as well. A few shots hit my shields but I ignore it. I shoot a Colossus center mass a few times and I then spin and stab another in the throat with my knife.

I use Aero Dash just as bullets begin striking my new extremely powerful Cyclone kinetic barriers and I slash a distant enemy's throat. I spin and shoot a Colossus in the back and another in the head while their backs are turned. They all turn around and start firing at me again.

I activate Incinerate and set a few enemies aflame with one snap. I use the distraction to gun down a few more enemies with my shotgun. Only three gang members remain.

I use Telekinesis and throw one against a wall. He instantly dies, leaving a splatter of blood on the wall. I then make use of my Spring Heel tonic to leap over the other two gangsters.

I stab one in the head with my knife and point my shotgun at the other's head before he can turn around.

He spins around and looks down the barrel of my shotgun. I use Telekinesis and pull him to his knees. "Where's your boss, Izar?"

The gangster points at a small shed nearby. I shoot the gangster in the head, obliterating his head with the shotgun. I know that sounds harsh, but the job is to eliminate everybody.

I holster my shotgun and walk over to the shed. I kick the door down and find Izar, holding a woman hostage, with a knife at her throat.

"Get back! Get the fuck back or I'll cut this bitch."

I raise my hand. I use Telekinesis to pull the knife out of his hand and into my hand. Izar looks at me confused. The woman elbows him in the stomach and runs behind me.

Izar backs up into the corner and covers his head. "Please don't kill me! It wasn't my fault! It was that fucking bitch Sha'ira! She's the devil! Don't kill me!"

I hold the knife firmly in my hand, then I lift it up and point it at him. I use Telekinesis to send in flying into his chest. Izar gasps and clutches at the knife before he dies.

I turn around and face the woman. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

The woman shakes her head. "N-no, I'm okay, I was just passing by and he grabbed me. Thank God you came when you did."

I huff. "God has nothing to do with it, Miss. It was just a coincidence."

She shrugs. "Can't say I can complain either way. Are you Splicer?"

I roll my eyes under my helmet. "Yes."

"Wow! Wait'll the girls hear about this! I was saved by Splicer!"

I roll my eyes again. "Call C-Sec, tell them to clean this mess up. I need to go complete the contract."

The woman smiles and opens her omni-tool. "Sure thing Splicer."

What is she my side-kick? I already have one: The Fornax Kid. Nah that's not a good one for Vaga is it? Ah well I'll think about one later. For now I need to get some answers. Oh hang on.

"Uh miss?"

The woman turns around. "Yeah Splicer?"

"When C-Sec asks you what happened, could you tell them that the gang captured you and that I heard your yelling and came to your rescue? I need this on the down low. If you agree I'll give you a little reward."

The woman nods enthusiastically. "Absolutely! What kind of reward?"

Uh… "How about an autograph?"

She screams in excitement and looks around for something for me to sign.

I raise my eyebrows. What am I to these people? Some kind of crime fighting super hero?

She then shrugs, hands me a pen, and lifts up her shirt revealing her bra. "Sign my bra!"

I shiver. "Okay."

I sign the bra reluctantly and start walking away. I hear the woman from behind me. "Nice armor change by the way!"

I sigh. She was kind of annoying. But I have to agree. My armor is much bigger now. I have an entire set and my body is totally protected. Tyrannax ditched the Nano-Suit arms from Crysis and just gave me simple armor that looks like the Stabilizer Gauntlets from ME2. These however amp my strength and come with a few tools like a cutter laser and such. My palms are still bare however, and that's just because if I used my plasmid with gloves on then they'd get destroyed. So it's sort of pointless. Also my chest is bulked up by a heavier combat plate. My helmet also has a t-shaped reinforcement over the glass dome part. All in all my armor is now nearly impenetrable. The problem is though that my mobility has completely plummeted. I also am no longer able to be as agile as I was. Hell, not like I was agile to begin with anyways.

Well I better get going.

* * *

><p><strong>8:44 PM March 13, 2182<strong>

I walk into the Consort's Chambers, feeling a little anxious. I don't actually know exactly what I'm going to ask her but I need to ask her something.

I walk up to Nelyna. "Hey Nelyna. I'm here to speak with the Consort."

She nods. "She's been expecting you. Oh and I never thanked you for helping me keep my job. It was really sweet. I really wouldn't have been able to find work anywhere else, there is a lot of a controversy and rumors about the Consort and her attendants."

I nod. "I know. It was no trouble either. I would have done it for anybody really."

Nelyna's smile straightens a little and she looks down at her console again. "Thanks again. The Consort is waiting for you. Maybe I'll see you later?"

I nod. "For sure."

I walk through the Chamber toward the stairs at the back and then into the Consort's room. I find her standing in the middle of the room with her back to me.

I enter and close the distance between us. She turns around after I get close enough.

She starts pacing around me. "I heard about Izar. I wanted to thank you for helping me."

She finishes a circle around me and stops in front of me.

I narrow my eyes. "Our deal isn't done."

Sha'ira nods. And takes a few steps away from me facing the wall. "Of course. Ask your questions then."

I stare at the floor. Where should I start? I look up and find the Consort standing right in front of me, staring into my eyes.

I sigh. Here we go… "I've been having these… dreams. More like nightmares."

The Consort turns away again and walks over to a couch. She motions for me to sit next to her. I do.

"Go on."

I balance my elbows on my knees and let my head lower.

I pull my helmet off and place it on the spot in between us. "I feel like the dreams… the nightmares. They're more than just dreams I think. I want to know what they mean."

The Consort smiles knowingly. "I see. You want me to look into your mind."

I nod. "Yes. But I will warn you. This could… break you. I don't want to hurt you."

The Consort smiles again. "Don't worry. I am an asari Matriarch. My mind is far superior to yours. If you can take these 'dreams' then I can too."

I nod. "Okay do it then."

Sha'ira moves my helmet onto the floor and scoots closer to me.

She places her hands gently on the sides of my head and closes her eyes. "Clear your mind."

I sigh and think of nothing, save for what is about to happen.

Sha'ira opens her eyes and they're black. As black as the void, as the Dark. "Embrace Eternity!"

_The black of Sha'ira's eyes envelops me and becomes the Dark. I can feel her, quivering, shaking, and then howling in pain from the Noise in my head. I can feel her eyes darting around the Dark searching for a way out, frantically, and panicked. Then she sees the same thing I always see emerging from the Dark. The Grim Reaper. The Monster comes face to face with me, her. I hear Sha'ira scream in sheer terror. I cannot scream for I have long since abandoned my voice. The Grim Reaper opens its maw and instead of the Lips, there are many beings trying to escape from its mouth. They all scream at us, howl for help. We do not want to join them. I feel Sha'ira trying to pull away, trying to escape. But the Grim Reaper holds too strong._

_Suddenly I think, I cognate and the Grim Reaper recoils in shock. I cannot let this Monster take another. I take a step forward and the Grim Reaper closes its maw and backs. I take another step. The Monster withdraws and drifts far away but is still in view. I look down at my arm. I focus. I activate Incinerate._

_The Noise screams louder than ever, not in laughter now, but in shock and hate. The Grim Reaper opens its maw again and consumes me, us._

I open my eyes and Sha'ira stumbles away from me screaming. Her hands dart away from the sides of my head and she falls off of the couch and lies on the ground, breathing frantically and shaking.

I stand and kneel next to her. "A-are you alright?"

She looks up at me. "What has happened to you?"

I turn away. "I… I cannot tell you. But what can you tell me? What have you learned?"

I help her to her feet. Sha'ira stumbles again, but I catch her and seat her on the couch.

Sha'ira places a hand on her forehead. "Um… I'm afraid that that was like nothing I had ever witnessed before. All I can tell you is… is that there may be something… else."

I frown. "Something else? What do you mean."

Sha'ira reaches forward and touches my forehead with her finger. "Something… or somebody else. Inside."

I recoil. "No. They're just dreams. Delusions."

Sha'ira shakes her head. "That thing I saw. It wasn't you. I could feel it. And there are others too, linked with you, by that… monster."

My eyes widen and I turn away from her. Others? Others linked with me. They see what I see? I… I don't understand.

"Neither do I."

Stupid inner monologue. I smile and start to laugh. "Ironic. I came with questions that have been plaguing me for a long time that I wanted answered. But now, I have even more than when I started."

Sha'ira stands shakily and places a consoling hand on my shoulder. "I wish I could say more. I will meditate on these events. Perhaps I will find answers in the grace of the Goddess."

I use Telekinesis and retrieve my helmet. I then put it on my head and leave without another word. Thanks for nothing!

I descend the stairs and walk out into the lobby. Nelyna spots me and smiles. She is wearing street clothes instead of her Consort robes.

As I approach she calls out to me. "Hey Jackson! I was wondering, are you busy right n—"

I walk straight past her very quickly and leave the Consort's Chambers. I don't have time for this. I feel like something is about to happen. I'm on the precipice of something big, I can feel it.

I walk past Dellan's Emporium and head toward the Transit Hub next to Barla Von's office. I am just about to pay for the toll when I hear something behind me.

I turn and see a turian hurrying out of Barla Von's office. His demeanor troubles me. I watch him walk away and I spot something… oh fuck. He has a gun in his hand…

I look over my shoulder at the door to Barla Von's office. I walk up to it and open the door. A gasp escapes me at the sight of Barla Von's dead body, lying in the middle of the office, his suit riddled with bullet holes and a small pool of blood expanding from his corpse.

This is it… I've ruined everything…


	11. Chapter 11 Behind Closed Doors

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

"**Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance."**

**~Sun Tzu~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 11: Behind Closed Doors<strong>

**9:39 PM March 13, 2182 **

* * *

><p>Oh shit. I have really fucked things up haven't I?<p>

I walk over and kneel next to Barla Von's dead body. Like I REALLY fucked things up! This guy was somewhat instrumental in the early events of Mass Effect 1! Oh my Lord I'll bet that turian assassin worked for the Shadow Broker. I'll bet that they found out about my little devious plot and targeted Barla Von. It's my fault really I directly planned for Barla Von to be implicated with the betrayal.

Why? Why didn't I implicate that random asari broker to be the traitor? Why?

"Hey Jackson, I—"

Uh oh… this isn't going to be good. I slowly turn my head and see Nelyna standing behind me, staring wide-eyed at Barla Von's corpse.

I stand and take my helmet off.

I have to be calm and collected otherwise I might freak her out. "Listen, Nelyna, it's not what—"

Nelyna slaps me across the face midsentence hard enough to turn my head to the side. "You murderer! You killed a man in cold blood!"

I turn my head to face Nelyna again. "Nelyna I—"

She slaps me again.

I exhale heatedly. "Nelyna—"

She tries to slap me again but I catch her wrist. "Listen! I didn't kill him! He was dead when I got here!"

Nelyna wrenches her arm from my grip. "Why should I believe you?"

I roll my eyes. Really? "You know my reputation. You seriously wouldn't be alive right now if I actually killed this guy and…"

As I explain myself to Nelyna I can't help but focus on a figure approaching from behind her. Oh SHIT!

I grab Nelyna and spin her around so that we practically switch positions. The turian assassin from before has returned, obviously he spotted us in here and needed to finish the job. The assassin fires a couple rounds from his pistol at me and they strike my shields, reflecting harmlessly.

I pull Nelyna to the side so that we're not in the doorway anymore. I put my helmet on and draw my pistol and peek through the doorway. He's gone.

I holster my pistol and face Nelyna again. "Besides, if I killed him, that wouldn't have just happened."

Nelyna is breathing heavily and after a second in which she is unable to compile words, she just nods in acknowledgement. Good enough.

"Freeze mother fucker!"

I look over my shoulder at the group of C-Sec officers quickly filling the room.

I sigh… great… I put my hands over my head and so does Nelyna. I feel myself get roughly dragged out of the office with my hands being bound behind my back. The guards relieve me of my weapons and lead me to a C-Sec prisoner transport van. They throw me inside and I fall on the floor.

I look around… no benches… well that's classy. Nelyna is thrown into the transport as well and she in falls next to me.

Nope that was classy. "Very gentlemanly sir." I shout to the C-Sec officer before he closes the doors. Just before the doors shut, I spot a familiar face with a smug expression. Garrus. Oh well that's just wonderful. Just fucking wonderful.

I struggle and sit up with some difficulty. Nelyna opts with just lying on the floor.

Nelyna turns and lies on her back. "Well I hope you're happy."

I look at her. "What?"

She looks at me. "What do you mean 'what'? You got us in this mess!"

I let my head fall back against the wall. My helmet makes a very audible noise against the metal. "I got us in this mess? I seem to remember being slowed down in my explanation of innocence by your palm."

Nelyna sighs. "So it's my fault then?"

I shake my head. "That's not what I meant. Neither of us are to blame. They've got no evidence on us. They can't keep us in jail."

Silence falls. This is great. Just great. They're gonna take off my helmet, run my fingerprints and stuff, use facial recognition or whatever, and they're going to find out that I don't exist here.

"What does that mean? What do you mean you don't exist?"

Fuck you inner monologue. "I'm not registered here. I technically don't exist."

Nelyna looks up at me concerned. "You're going to get deported!"

I sigh. "Probably."

Deported? Eh… That's not good…

I feel the van cabin shake a little. "Looks like we're here."

Nelyna sits up just as the doors are opened again.

An officer hops in and pulls us to our feet. Nelyna gets out first and I start leaving. Just before I hop out the cop kicks me in my lower back and I fall out of the van and flat on my face. Luckily I'm wearing my helmet. Still, it doesn't help stop the force. I don't have shock absorbers in my torso and helmet after all.

"Hey!" I hear Nelyna shout somewhere nearby "What's the matter with you!"

"You shut up!" I hear another cop shout, followed by a loud slapping sound and a gasp of pain from Nelyna.

"Hey!" I yell as I struggle with my binds and try to turn over. "You leave her alone dammit!"

"Officer Daniels. That's not necessary." I hear the unmistakable voice of Garrus say somewhere behind me.

I then feel hands on my back haul me to my feet. I look around and see Nelyna being pulled to her feet by Garrus. She has a fresh purple bruise on her cheek and it's already swelled slightly.

The cops lead us into the C-Sec headquarters where were are split and I am lead into a small interrogation room.

After a moment or two a turian in a suit comes in and sits across from me.

He hands me a datapad. "Listen. I work for some people who would hate to see you deported from the Citadel. So here is who you are: Your name is Robert Jackson. You're 23 and from Los Angeles, California. You grew up in a foster home and never had any family. You ran away from the foster home soon after you graduated from high school and lived on the streets. You earned enough money to move to the Citadel a few months ago. In your time on the streets you learned you were a biotic and became an exceptional tech expert through unconventional means."

I look down at the datapad. It's all the details he just told me plus a few other things. Who the hell is this guy?

I look up and the man takes a tiny plastic bag and a small vial of blood out of his pocket. "I am supposed to take DNA samples and blood samples."

He holds up the plastic bag which I now see has a hair in it. "This is your DNA." He opens the vial and takes a sample of blood. "And there is the blood."

The man stands to leave. "I'll need that datapad back. Do you remember the details?"

I nod and hand him the datapad.

He opens his omni-tool. "Oh and I almost forgot…"

After a short second. "There. I downloaded your mercenary license to your omni-tool. I know you don't have it but still."

The man turns to leave but I stop him. "Wait! Who are you? Who do you work for?"

The man turns and looks at me. "Patience. We'll be in contact."

The man leaves and I take a seat again. Hours pass…

From what I remember about watching cop shows on TV in my Universe I'll be in here a while. More hours pass…

Finally Garrus comes in. "Well, well. Mr. Splicer. I never thought this would happen."

I shake my head. "Hello Garrus. How is it going?"

Garrus takes a seat across from me. "I'll be the one asking questions today."

I nod. "Ask your questions then."

Garrus scratches the side of his head. "Well first I'll have to ask you to remove your helmet. I prefer to speak with criminals face to face."

I sigh. I know that if I refuse he'll just have some guys take it off by force. Might as well. I unlatch my helmet and remove it. I place it on the table in between us.

Garrus takes a moment to stare at me. He's probably memorizing my face so that he can pick me out of a line up or something.

Garrus nods as if he has my face in his memory. "Alright, then let's get down to… business."

I wait patiently. This is going to be a long night…

"Why don't you tell me why you killed him?"

I laugh. "Who?"

Garrus shakes his head, frustration starting to build. "The volus. Barla Von."

I shake my head. "I didn't kill him."

"Oh really? We found you at the scene, fully armed and armored. And just a few hours ago we had to clean up a bunch of dead gang members out on the Wards. The only person left alive there was a woman who said she was grabbed by the gang and that you came to save her. That true?"

I nod. "Yes that's true."

Garrus frowns… or does the turian equivalent of a frown. "So then it's also true that you killed all those people?"

I nod again. "Yeah… Your point?"

Garrus opens his omni-tool and holds it up to my face. "Could you repeat that please? I need a recording of the confession."

I sigh. "That wasn't a confession. They shot at me first Garrus I was just defending myself." That isn't totally a lie. I was shot at first after all. And I did defend myself against the people defending themselves so…

Garrus stands and slams his hands on the table. "Listen, I'm tired of your shit! Just give it up! We know you're a cold blooded killer! We know you killed Barla Von. We know you killed all those gang members. And you're the top suspect on several other murders on the Presidium alone!"

Assertive… If I'm going to get out of here scot free then I'll need to piss him off, this isn't going to end well. "Listen Garrus, I don't want to be your enemy. I'll admit, I killed those gang members, but in self-defense. I didn't kill Barla Von I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can prove it too. Check ballistics, I'll bet my pistol, that you guys confiscated, won't match the rounds in the body nor will any of my other guns. As for those other murders, if you guys need help with those I'd be happy to help."

"You son of a bitch!" Ha! I got on his bad side. Garrus throws the table between us out of the way and headbutts me fiercely. His headbutt was perfectly aimed, connecting his forehead with my nose.

The force of the blow makes me fall backward in my chair. I feel blood pour from my busted nose onto my face and into my armor. I cough and sputter out blood and spit. Hopefully somebody was watching and they'll come in here and stop him.

Garrus bends down and grabs the collar of my armor. "We don't need your help around here!"

Garrus throws a surprisingly strong blow into my face. I feel a few teeth get knocked loose. Garrus throws another blow into my temple. If somebody doesn't come in to stop this I might have to defend myself.

"Garrus!"

I feel Garrus release his grip on me and I fall to the ground. My eyes are swelling and my vision is blurry but I can make out Garrus being dragged away from me by two human officers. I can also see a third person, a turian, standing the table and chairs back up.

The turian then helps me to my feet and puts me in my original chair.

He kneels next to me and examines my face. "Shit Garrus… What the fuck did you do?"

The turian raises a hand to his ear. "We need an EMT in interrogation room 3. Hurry."

I cough. "Who's talking?"

The turian looks at me. "Names Zurin Sageaus. I'm a detective in homicide. You can call me Zero. Listen man, help is on the way you're going to be fine."

I spit a mouthful of blood and some teeth onto the floor next to me. "I'm going to be fine you don't need to worry about me."

I feel my face start to throb and get really hot as my Fast Healing tonic kicks in. My vision starts to restore as the swelling goes down and I flex my jaw and hear a few audible cracks. I then feel around in my mouth with my tongue and find my teeth are regrowing.

I blink a few times to clear the haze out of my vision.

I look over at Zero and see him staring at me wide-eyed. He's a little shorter than average turians, but that's still heads and shoulders over me. He is also missing his left mandible. His skin is a greyish brown, but in the bright light there's a kind of blue iridescence and he has no face markings.

He gestures lazily at my face. "Uh… how did you do that?"

I crack my neck a few times and exhale. "Natural talent."

The door opens again and an asari EMT comes in. She rushes to my side and gets ready to help me.

She wipes off the blood on my face but stops. "What the hell? Isn't he supposed to be hurt?"

Zero shrugs. "He just healed right before my eyes!"

The EMT looks up at him. Zero shakes his head and shrugs. I take the cloth that the EMT used to wipe my face and wipe the remainder of blood off of my face and neck.

I hand it back to her. "Thanks."

The EMT just shakes her head in confusion and leaves throwing her arms up in frustration.

I cross my arms and recline in my chair. "So, are you Garrus's partner? Are you gonna be the good cop to his bad cop? The Yang to his Yin?"

Zero shakes his head. "No I'm supposed to take you to Executor Pallin. You sure you're… alright?"

I nod and stand. "Yeah I'm fine. Why does Pallin want to see me?"

"Can't say for sure. He just asked for you." Zero handcuffs me again and leads me out of the room.

As we walk I take a brief moment to examine the place. There's a lot of turians here and they all seem to be staring at us. The only people I see not staring are the few humans, asari and salarians around.

I lean over and mumble to Zero, "Hey, why is everybody staring at us?"

He shakes his head. "They're not staring at you. They're staring at me. Nobody trusts me around here despite the fact that I've been working here for almost three years."

I frown. "They're staring at you like your some kind of brand new alien species. Why don't they trust you?"

Zero sighs. "Little history lesson here. During the Unification War, before the Citadel was even discovered, the turian species had expanded out into the galaxy and had created strong thriving colonies. The war was actually a civil war between the colonies. Nearing the end of the war the turian Hierarchy stepped in and made peace between everyone. During the war, the warring colonies distinguished themselves by wearing unique and ornate face paints. People who were in the turian Hierarchy at the time didn't have face paint. This tradition has lasted the test of time and even now most turians wear the face paint of their ancestor's origin colony, even people on Palaven wear special face paint. However, turians who were in the Hierarchy, as I said, didn't wear face paint. Thus their descendants don't wear face paint. It's pretty rare, but a turian who doesn't wear any face paint is known as 'barefaced'. It's usually a term reserved for politicians but descendants of the turian Hierarchy all those years ago are also barefaced. The term also refers to one who is untrustworthy or beguiling or sinister, which is why politicians are often called barefaced."

I look around at the turians staring at us, or rather Zero. "So they don't trust you because you're barefaced? Why don't you just put on face paint?"

Zero rolls his eyes. "Ignorant human. Because that would be disgraceful, even offensive. Besides, most people are taught from a young age their distinct face paint. I don't know any so I would probably get it wrong. People around here know I'm barefaced anyways so it's pointless. Besides wearing face paint even though I'm barefaced would just make the stereotypes true."

He's got a point. Poor guy it seems like everyone here hates him and he seems like a decent fella. Zero leads me outside and toward a car. It's still dark out but it must be close to 4 in the morning by now. The Presidium really has it's sunrise and sunset thing really accurately set. He helps me inside and gets into the driver's seat.

Huh. That's odd. There's no other escorts. Usually for prisoner transport they have at least a second officer guarding the prisoner. They must really not give a shit about this guy.

I lean forward. "Hey Zero. What time is it?"

"5:33. The 'sun' will come up at 6 sharp."

After the short trip to the Embassies where Pallin's office is Zero opens the door for me and I step out. I actually haven't been to this part of the Citadel yet. Never really had the need to. Oh look there's Ambassador Udina!

Everyone in the area stares at us as Zero leads me toward Pallin's office. I wave at Udina as I pass and offer a smile. Udina just gives me a confused stare in return.

He, he. He's going to be in for a mind fuck when I turn up again in a year or so. Zero leads me into Pallin's office and leaves me alone with him.

After the door is closed, Pallin turns off his terminal. "Hello Mr. Splicer. Or should I say, Robert Jackson? Sorry about this mess. I hope Garrus didn't harm you too seriously."

I shake my head. "No I'm fine."

Pallin nods and gestures to a chair. "Good. Please have a seat."

I take the seat and wait for Pallin to continue. I wonder why he called me here.

Pallin puts his elbows up on his desk. "First of all I need to ask: Did Detective Sageaus try to do anything with you? Like did he try to get you to do anything… illegal?"

I shake my head. "No. We just talked a little."

Pallin nods. "Good. Sorry, it's just that he has some people in internal affairs looking in on him. He's suspected of a lot of stuff."

Probably because he's barefaced… not cool.

Pallin sighs. "Anyways, back to you. Our forensic scientists ran some tests and found that you couldn't have killed Barla Von. Ballistics doesn't match up and there's evidence of a turian assailant. You're cleared of all charges. You can go get your things at the station. Detective Sageaus will bring you back."

"One last thing Executor," I say, this has been nagging me for a while. "I read that comment of yours in the paper about me after I caught Pendosa."

"And?" He says propping his elbows up onto the desk.

I smile. "And, I heard your reputation for not trusting humans I was surprised by your positive feedback of my work."

He nods. "I see. Well I'll explain it to you Splicer. You're right. I don't trust humans. But you're different somehow. You come off as… trustworthy I suppose, which is likely why I gave you the job.

I stand and extend a hand to him. "Thanks Executor. If you guys need help with anything you know how to find me."

Pallin stares at my hand for a second before he shakes. "Mr. Jackson."

I'm about to get up and leave but a thought comes to my mind. Wow I almost forgot. "Excuse me Executor. But I was arrested with a friend of mine, Nelyna. What about her? Is she going to be released too?"

Pallin nods. "Yes I just sent her release request to the station. She'll be released by the time you and Zero get back to the station."

"Thank you, sir." I stand and leave Pallin's office. Zero is leaning against the wall down the hall a little doing something on his omni-tool.

I walk up to him and he looks up from his omni-tool. "What'd he say?"

I shrug. "He was just telling me that I'm cleared of all my charges."

Zero checks his omni-tool. "You're right I just got a message from him."

Zero unlocks my cuffs and clips them to his belt. "You ready to go back to the station for your stuff?"

I nod. I follow Zero back to the car and we drive back to the station in silence mostly.

Somewhere in the middle of the trip I decide to break the silence. "You know Pallin mentioned you."

Zero looks over at me. "Really? What did he say?"

"He asked me if you tried to get me to do something illegal. And he said you had a lot of people looking in on you in internal affairs."

Zero smirks. "Yeah that sounds about right. There are like 5 or 6 cases that internal affairs are running on me right now."

Damn! "5 or 6? That's crazy, what the hell have you been doing?"

Zero rolls his eyes. "The list of things I'm suspected of is the longest on the force. None of it's true however. It's all just speculation. Like I said, nobody trusts me."

Wow. You'd think that a species as sophisticated and proud as the turians would show a little more love for one another. Discrimination will be a part of society for many years to come. It doesn't matter how hard one person tries to change something, everyone is entitled to their opinion. The beauty of that rule is that you can look down on somebody else's opinion because that's your opinion. Loopholes…

The car touches down at the station and we walk into the station together.

Once in the lobby, we stop and Zero extends a hand to me. "It's been a pleasure, but I have cases that won't solve themselves. This has been the strangest day of my life."

I shake his hand and smile. "So far."

Zero smirks… oh wait, maybe he's smiling he's only got one mandible so I can't tell. "You can get your stuff at the front desk. I'll see you around, Splicer."

Zero walks down a hall and disappears into an office. I turn and head toward the front desk.

I walk up to the clerk who is busily typing away at a terminal. "Excuse me."

The clerk looks up. "Can I help you?"

I scratch the back of my head. "Uh. I'm Splicer. I came for my things."

The clerk's eyes brighten and she reaches under the desk and puts a large plastic tub on the desk. "Here are your possessions. Please sign these forms before you go."

I start signing the forms. The last piece of paper is actually a large picture of myself with a line at the bottom. I look up at the clerk whose eyes are locked on her screen, but she steals a glance over at me every so often. I sigh and roll my eyes and sign the picture. The clerk gets all exited and claps her hands together before snatching the picture away leaving the rest of the forms forgotten in front of me. I shake my head and look in the tub. Let's see, assault rifle, handgun, shotgun, omni-tool, credit chit… where's my helmet? "Hey! Where's my helmet?"

The clerk looks up at me and frowns. "Uh. I'm not sure. Was it confiscated on the way in?"

I shake my head. "No I took it off in interrogation."

Her frown deepens. "Then maybe one of the detectives took it."

Garrus… Dammit I have a video feed in my helmet! If he manages to get in there, then he'll have video recordings of every single hit and job I've done, plus a few private things that I'd rather not discuss. I had that video camera installed so that I could observe my enemies, refine my combat technique, make fewer mistakes, you know basically the Research Camera from Bioshock. I actually ended up using one of those in Rapture and it actually came in handy.

Well now it seems that this may be bad. I have no doubt that what he plans on doing is illegal.

I look up at the clerk. "Where is Detective Vakarian's office?"

The clerk points down a hall to my left. "He doesn't exactly have an office. The vice department is down that way."

I quickly run down the hall she indicated. Who knows how much time I have?

I run up a flight of stairs and into a hallway with the left wall replaced by a window. This building sits on higher ground in the Presidium, if that makes any sense, and if I stopped and looked out this window I could look over the entire Presidium.

But I don't have time to stop! I need to get my helmet from Garrus!

Suddenly, and without any warning, the building starts shaking violently and I fall to the ground. My unprotected head hits the hard metal ground which results in me rolling around of the floor for a few seconds in pain.

After I recollect myself I get to my feet, only to fall to the ground again as a second quake shakes the building even more violently. After a few seconds the shaking stops and I pick myself up again.

A third quake, much more violent than the first two starts, but I manage to stay on my feet. This one however is preceded by a deafening boom. I look out the window just in time to see the massive cloud of smoke, flame and debris flying upward near to the station.

My jaw drops to the ground as I take notice of the two other columns of smoke rising in the distance.

A fourth explosion rocks the building, this time it's close enough for the shockwave to shatter the window and throw me against the wall. I throw my arms up to protect my face from flying glass and let myself slide down the wall into a seated position. What the fuck is going on?

I open my eyes and see that the latest explosion was only blocks away from the station. Then small pops start going off in very quick succession. What is that, assault rifle fire?

Nope those were distant explosions! The pops turn into booms as the artificial ceiling starts getting peppered with small explosions. The explosions move past the building overhead and in the aftermath of the blasts the power quickly fails and the Presidium is plunged into darkness. Well not total darkness because the fires from the explosion light the streets up a little.

Suddenly numerous gunships begin flying past the building overhead. Every so often as they fly over the Presidium, one gunship splits off from the formation and hovers over a part of the Presidium. This is clearly very organized.

I look up and see more gunships flying out of the holes created from the explosions in the Presidium ceiling.

What the fuck is going on? Suddenly the hallway is illuminated by the bright light of a gunship. I cover my face with my arms and quickly get to my feet.

I then hear the unmistakable sound of a mini-gun spinning. Oh shit!

I sprint to my right just as the gun starts firing. I literally missed it by a hair's width. In an attempt to gain some ground I use Aero Dash to get ahead but the gunship quickly catches up each time. Why does this hallway have to be so fucking long!

I Aero Dash three times in quick succession and reach the end a little too early. I crash through the door to the other side and collapse to the ground.

The gunship ceases it's attack and I hear it fly away. I breathe a sigh of relief and get to my feet.

The room is in total darkness but I can see a few people freaking out. Then out of a door on the far right side of the room I see many lights appear. These lights come out from flashlights at the end of assault rifles.

The armed men quickly fan out in the room, screaming commands at the people. Suddenly one spots me.

"Get on the ground! Get on the fucking ground!"

The flashlight is blinding but I can take a guess at where his head is. I draw my pistol as quickly as I can and shoot at his head until he collapses onto the ground dead. Damn! That bastard had some tough shields! It took 6 shots to kill him! And a top of the line assault rifle, he managed to kill my shields just before he died.

I holster my pistol and draw my assault rifle. I set it to burst fire mode and quickly pick off a few of the other armed soldiers. The remaining two soldiers roll into cover, moving in opposite directions. Shit they're trying to flank me!

I quickly sprint to my left and vault over a cubicle, directly onto one of the soldiers. I quickly put him in a choke hold and after a few seconds I apply enough force to snap his neck.

I stand and peek over the top of the cubicle in the direction of the other soldier.

Shit! Looks like he took a hostage.

An asari woman who is wearing a C-Sec uniform but looks very afraid, I guess she isn't used to these situations. I crouch down again and close the distance between us, remaining out of sight. Once I'm close enough I rise out of cover and move into the open keeping my rifle trained on the pair.

The soldier keeps his gun pointed at his hostage's head, and he also keeps a tight grip around her neck. I can't use Telekinesis to take the gun, he might shoot her. I can't use Incinerate or Insect Swarm either because it could kill the hostage.

Looks like I don't have a choice. "Sorry about this lady."

I quickly activate Electro Bolt and blast the woman in the stomach. The current created by the pistol touching her head and the arm around her neck, causes the electricity to travel into the merc as well. Luckily the electricity shorts out the pistol and despite the violent spasming pair it doesn't go off.

Wow that was lucky I didn't plan on that happening; I should really be more careful next time. Or I shouldn't push my luck and try that again.

The two fall to the ground shaking violently I walk up to the soldier and fire a shot in his head.

I then turn and kneel next to the asari woman. "Hey sorry about that. I didn't really have a lot of options."

The woman stops shaking a little and looks up at me angrily. "What the hell? You could have killed me!"

I shrug. Whatever lady I don't need your approval. I glance over at the soldier. Now to find out what's happening.

I kneel next to the dead soldier and turn on my omni-tool light and shine it on him. Oh shit… The Blue Suns? Why are they attacking the Citadel?

Or more important: Why is something that never happened in the Mass Effect games, happening now?

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><p><strong>AN: Whoa, bet all of you didn't expect that to happen. **

**The next 21 chapters are my favorites. They're way better than the first 11. Oh... I almost forgot, part one of the story is officially done now. 32 chapters, 568 pages. Hope you guys enjoy it. **

**Thanks for reading and give me feedback: How am I doing so far? Think this is good? Think it sucks? Tell me why. I'd love to know how to improve my story. Again, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.**


	12. Chapter 12 C OIW! Part 1: My Hero

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

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><p>"<strong>The darkest places in Hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."<strong>

**~Dante Alighieri~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 12: Crisis! On Infinite Wards! – Part 1<strong>

**My Hero**

**6:22 AM March 14, 2182**

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><p>I let out a sigh of exasperation.<p>

And I think it was well deserved.

The Blue Suns?

Attacking the fucking Citadel?

That's pretty bold. I got to hand it to them though they seem to be doing well so far. But that's only because we haven't had time to fight back yet.

Okay let's see what we have here…

I kneel next to the dead Blue Suns merc and I open his omni-tool. "SNAKE: Download and encrypt files from his omni-tool."

"_Download commencing. Approximate download completion: one minute. Approximate encryption completion: 8-9 hours."_

Damn! There must be some heavy encryption on these files! I'm glad I have a VI to do that for me. "SNAKE: How much EVE do I have left?"

"_There is approximately 52 milligrams in your bloodstream and there are 5 out of 9 filled EVE hypos in your armor."_

Shit, I'm going to need to get more from my place if I'm going to help C-Sec fight off the Blue Suns. While I'm heading there I'll help anybody along the way and bring them to my place so that they can hunker down with Nata, Ramlok, and Hirvio.

I'll need some help though. "SNAKE: Contact Vaga Kotka through secure channels."

"_Currently tasked to capacity. Please wait 17 seconds for file download to complete. Secondary option: Would you like to place file download in background? Warning: Will increase completion time!"_

I roll my eyes. VIs are annoying. They tell you a lot of unnecessary information. "SNAKE: Yes place file download in background and contact Vaga Kotka through secure channels."

"_Download placed in background. Approximate file download completion: 44 seconds and counting. Contacting: Vaga Kotka."_

I sigh. SNAKE said that I only have 52 milligrams of EVE in my system. That's way too little. I slap my chest, which triggers the injection process. I raise my left arm and watch a tube that runs down my arm to my wrist glow blue momentarily as EVE is auto-injected into my bloodstream. Good that outta last me a few Plasmid uses.

But now I only have 4 EVE hypos. I'm really a glass is half-empty kind of guy.

After a few minutes, Vaga picks up the line. I can hear gunfire in the background. _"Jackson? Where are you?"_

"I'm at the Presidium C-Sec station. It's a long story. Where are you?"

There's no answer for a second. When Vaga talks again it's in a more hushed tone. _"I'm at my place. There's soldiers storming the place and fighting in the streets. What's going on?"_

I look down at the dead merc. "It's Blue Suns. They're attacking the Citadel for some reason. They're here too. This is very organized, they've probably been planning this for months, maybe years."

"_Damn. Blue Suns? This has to go higher than that. Somebody had to have hired them… Never mind that isn't important right now. I'm going to put on my armor and get my guns. Some of the Shadow Broker's men just came in and they want me to come with them, should I go?"_

I shrug. "I was hoping you could meet me at my place. I want to take the fight to the Blue Suns and see how we can help out."

"_That sounds like a better plan. I'll tell these guys to drop me off at your place. Apparently they're rounding up all of the Shadow Broker agents and information brokers and taking them to a safe house."_

"Lucky them."

I hear Vaga laugh. _"Yeah. Lucky bastards. There they are all snug and cozy in their safe house while we're here saving the Citadel."_

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Vaga. We've still got a lot of work to do. I'm gonna have to go on foot to my house from here. It'll be a while so I'll meet you there."

"_Alright Jackson. Be careful out there and watch your ass. You never know what kind of creeps are out there right now."_

I smile and hang up the call and start checking the heat sinks on my weapons.

"Um… excuse me?" I glance over my shoulder at the source of the noise. A tan and short, young looking woman with freckles, green eyes and very short black hair wearing shorts and a t-shirt was the one speaking. She's very pretty. I wish I was more charming, otherwise I'd flirt with her. But unfortunately I suck at that so I'll just spare myself any embarrassment and keep my mouth shut.

Five other people are standing behind her, three of whom are salarians and the other two are asari including the one that I electrocuted earlier, they all seem rather fidgety.

I raise my eyebrow. "Uh yeah? Can I help you? Is anybody hurt?"

The woman shakes her head quickly. "No, no. We're all fine. But what should we do now? Those guys are running around all over the place! We'll be killed if we go outside. Can you take us somewhere safe?"

I shrug. "Well this is a C-Sec station. I would have figured this place would be safe. Where do you think the officers would be?"

The woman shrugs. "We're just analysts. We don't involve ourselves much with beat walkers. But I guess they'd go to the lobby."

I nod. "Alright that's not too far away. Follow me I'll keep you guys safe."

I pick up an assault rifle from a dead Blue Suns and hand it to one of the salarians. He takes it and looks at it like it's some kind of religious artifact.

I frown. Time to bring up moral. "Hey what's your name?"

He looks up at me. "Um uh… Okirk. I know who you are. We all do around here. You're Splicer right?"

I nod. "Yeah that's me."

They all look at each other, some looking satisfied, others surprised, and a few confused.

"Something I'm missing?" I say loudly, getting their attention.

Okirk shakes his head. "Oh no. We're all just surprised. I mean, it's nice to get to meet you face to face, but we're all surprised by your appearance. Personally I thought you were an asari commando."

"I thought you'd be an old guy, not so… young." The woman with shorts comments.

I choose to ignore them. "Listen Okirk, you are gonna be my second in command for now. Can you handle that?"

Listen to me, I'm 23 and I sound like I'm some 54 year old Wild West sheriff talking to some kid about making him his deputy. Okirk nods and smiles. "Yeah I can do that!"

I smile back. "Alright! Now have you ever fired a gun before?"

He shrugs. "A few pistols."

I shake my head and gesture to the assault rifle. "That's a very different concept right there. I'm gonna give you a few pointers real fast. What you want to do is lean into your shots; that helps with recoil. Fire in short 3 second bursts; that helps your accuracy and prevents your weapon from overheating. It's also important to keep that rifle shouldered. Don't get all stupid on me and start firing that all over the place because you got it next to your hip."

Okirk nods. "Okay got it. So what's the plan?"

I nod at the door I came in. "That's where I came in. There's an annoyingly long hallway behind that door. I just barely escaped being blown to pieces by a gunship's mini-gun. I think it left but I'm going to play things safe. Okirk I want you to take 3 people with you and go across first. I'll cover you if you get spotted. Move fast don't stop. When you get to the other side, cover the rest of us as we move to the other side. Understand?"

He nods. "Yeah I got it."

I straighten. "Okay people you heard the plan. The asari that I didn't electrocute, girl with the pixie cut and you, salarian with the Depeche Mode t-shirt, are with me. You other three are with Okirk. Let's move."

I lead the group toward the door that I busted through, which is in pieces on the floor, and into the hallway.

I motion Okirk forward and him and his team start running down the hall while I keep an eye out for gunships or snipers. As I keep a lookout I can't help but stare in awe at the newly refurbished Presidium. It's in total ruins, there's fires everywhere, flashes of gunfire, little glowing omni-tools, people running in fear. It's a total warzone out there.

An emergency PA echoes suddenly causing us to jump slightly. _"People of the Citadel! This is Councilor Tevos! Return to your homes! The Citadel is under attack and is now running off emergency power! Please, return to your homes and do not leave until an all clear has been called! Return to your homes at once and barricade the entrances immediately! This is not a drill this—"_

The PA suddenly cuts off leaving only the noise of the gunfire. Tevos… which one is that one?

Really?

Can't think about this stuff now! More pressing matters are at hand!

I check Okirk's progress, looks like he made it across unharmed. "Okay let's go. Stay ahead of me."

My group starts running down the hall with me bringing up the rear. I lend a split focus to the window and to the hot girl's legs as we run down the hall. Really? Maybe keep your damn head in the game, Rob. You're truly a pig you know that? Ugh… I'm going to die alone aren't I?

Suddenly we're bathed in a bright light.

Not again! I look toward the gunship and hit it with an Electro Bolt. The light shuts off and the gunship starts spinning uncontrollably.

Oh crap! It's headed this way! "Go, go, go!"

I push the group forward and sprint toward the other side. Just before we reach the end the gunship collides with the building causing it to quake violently again. We all fall to the ground and the structural integrity of the building finally gives way as the floor begins to collapse beneath us. The rest of the group manage to reach the other side despite the slanting floor, but I unfortunately slide helplessly down to the ground floor where I find myself getting buried by office furniture.

Stuck and slowly getting asphyxiated by desks and novelty coffee mugs, I shout out at Okirk and his group. "Hey! I'm stuck! Could somebody help me out?!"

The group looks at each other, then Okirk turns away. "I'm sorry! We have to get out here before the place collapses! I'm so sorry!"

Assholes! What the hell? It really went to an every-man-for-himself situation quickly didn't it?

Alright… How am I going to get out of here?

The group all leave except for the young human woman with the nice legs who starts climbing down the rubble towards me.

She reaches the bottom and climbs over the rubble to me and kneels next to my head. "Hey, are you okay?"

I shrug, with some difficulty. "I've been better. Just get this junk off of me and I'll be fine."

She nods and starts dragging desks off of me. Once enough are off of me I lift the rest on my own and drag myself out.

I stand and brush myself off. "Thanks for not leaving me behind."

The girl shrugs. "You saved my life back there in the office, I just felt I should return the favor."

I smile. "What's your name?"

"Alex. You're Splicer, but what's your real name?"

"Robert Jackson." I say smiling. My secret identity is kind of out there now anyways because my helmet is lost.

She frowns. "I like Splicer better. That okay?"

I nod and shake her hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Now let's get to the lobby so that we can meet up with C-Sec and I can give little Okirk a piece of my mind. And as everyone knows, mercs like me often keep their mind in the ammo block of their gun or on their knuckles."

Alex nods. I hand her my pistol and we set off toward the lobby. It's just a few rooms away. So we get there very quickly. Once in the lobby, the severity of the situation really comes around.

It appears that everybody in the station choses to congregate here.

In a room illuminated by dull emergency lights, hundreds of people are packing the dark large room and I can barely hear myself think. I was hoping I might be able to find Garrus so I could get my helmet back but… It'd be impossible to find him in here and I'm not seeing him anyways.

I turn and put my head next to Alex's so she can hear me. "This place is packed! I don't think it's safe here! I can take you somewhere safer if you want!"

Alex nods. "Yeah, anywhere but here. There's too many people, it won't be organized enough to protect itself!"

"Follow me! I need to find a friend of mine!" I shout.

Alex nods. "Okay! Want your gun back?!"

I think about it for a moment. "Yeah you'd better give it back. I think it's best for me to hold onto it for now."

Alex hands me the gun and I holster it on my belt. I consider taking her hand to guide her through the crowd but I'm too awkward to do that so instead I do the next best thing, which is to shove people out of the way as I walk, clearing a path for her to walk in. Smooth operator, that's me.

As we walk I spot my little friend Okirk trying to push his way through the crowd away from me. He looks over his shoulder at me and stops when he sees me staring at him.

I smile and make a gun with my hand. I point it at him and pretend to shoot him. He flips out and starts shoving his way through the crowd, causing people to start to shove back. The noise level grows substantially. And here I thought it couldn't get any louder. Alex and I reach the front desk and are thankfully away from the mosh pit in the center of the room.

I pull Alex closer and talk into her ear so she can hear me. "Wait here!"

I hop up onto the front desk and scan the crowd. Let's see asari, asari, asari. There's lots of asari but none of them are Nelyna! Come on where's Nelyna?!

"Splicer!"

I turn and see a turian making his way through the crowd toward the front desk.

He stops near it and looks up at me. I'm pleased to see it's Zero, the barefaced mono-mandibled turian homicide detective. "Hey Splicer! You know what is going on?!"

I hop off of the desk next to him. "The Blue Suns they're attacking the Presidium, maybe the whole Citadel."

Zero looks at the ground in disbelief. "The Blue Suns? That's insane! Why would they attack the Citadel?! It's not called the Citadel for no reason!"

I shrug. "Your guess is as good as mine. Listen I'm heading back to my place and I'm going to get as many people along the way as possible. I could use some back up."

Zero frowns and rests his chin on his hand, clearly weighing his options. Finally Zero nods. "Yeah that's a good idea. This place isn't safe. Too many people. Let's just hope that the C-Sec officers here can hold down the fort until the military retaliates."

I nod and gesture to Alex next to me. "Thanks Zero. This is Alex. She'll be coming with us… Right?"

She nods. "Definitely. Anywhere is safer than here. And I know Zero, by the way. We do work in the same building, after all."

"Whatever." I roll my eyes and look back at Zero. "I need help finding a friend of mine. Nelyna? The asari girl I was arrested with?"

Alex nudges me on the arm. "That's why you're here? You were arrested?"

I wave her question off. "Not now."

Alex rolls her eyes and Zero smirks.

"I don't know about her. I'd look her up on the terminal to see if she left or not but the power's out." Zero says, causing my heart to flutter with worry. He notices my distress. "Hang on I'll ask."

He hops up onto the desk. "Hey everybody! Listen up everyone!"

The crowd keeps making noise. I don't think anybody heard him. I roll my eyes. Time for a little… crowd control.

I hop up onto the desk and focus Incinerate. Okay… let's see if I can do this… I raise my hand and blast a continuous tongue of flame into the air. Gasps of surprise fill the room. Everyone's eyes fix on me. Alright! My plasmid has evolved to the equivalent of Incinerate 3! Wow and it only took about six years too. So that means that I'll need to wait another year for Electro Bolt and Telekinesis, another two years for Winter's Blast and Aero Dash and another three years for Insect Swarm and Cyclone Trap.

Zero stares at me wide eyed. I motion for him to continue. He shakes himself out of his stupor. "Uh… Alright. Thanks Splicer! Listen up everyone! We're looking for-"

"Shut up bareface!"

I scowl at the turian who shouted that out, causing him to immediately shrink back. I look and nod at Zero to continue.

He smirks. "Uh. Right. Thank you. Anyways. We're looking for an asari named Nelyna, anybody seen her?"

No responses. During the pause I quickly scan the room for Garrus but I don't see him. Knowing Garrus though, he's smart enough to know not to stick around here. It's not at all safe.

"Nobody knows?" Zero asks the room.

Finally a C-Sec officer near the front door speaks up. "I think she's still in detention."

Zero nods. "Okay thanks." We hop down from the front desk and regroup in front of the desk.

I draw my assault rifle. "Wait for me here guys I'll be back soon."

Zero shakes his head. "No it would be better if I came with you. Stray C-Sec officers might think you're a hostile. Besides there's an exit to the streets in the detention ward."

I nod. "Good point. Let's go."

We move our way through the crowd toward the right side of the room then down an abandoned hallway toward the detention cells. As we near the area, a small beam of light from a door a ways up ahead causes us to freeze in our tracks.

We crouch down and Zero turns to us. "Hold here, I'm going to take a look."

Zero jogs down toward the door and nudges his way inside.

I wait and listen carefully, in case I have to run to back him up. I feel a tap on my shoulder.

I look over it at Alex who looks at me quizzically. "What?"

"Sorry, I was just curious: Do you have a flame thrower in your armor or something?" She asks.

I'm about to correct her, but I stop myself. Do I really have time to explain this now? I shrug. "Sure."

"Guys." I hear Zero call. "It's clear, come on."

We rejoin him. Turns out the light was coming from the omni-tool of a C-Sec officer, crushed by rubble. We move past him quickly, and we quickly reach a door labeled Detention.

Zero leads the way with his shotgun at the ready. "Alright it's just through here…"

"Yeah I figured as much." I say pointing at the sign.

Zero rolls his eyes. "Whatever…Wait. I hear something on the other side."

I listen carefully to sounds like muffled voices. I draw my shotgun and my pistol and hand my pistol to Alex. I motion Zero forward and he nods.

He nudges the door open and gets low so that I can aim over his head. The hall seems empty, as are all the cells except for one. In front of the cell there is a human Blue Suns merc examining the cell door, looking for a way inside.

I hear somebody from the cell shout at the merc. "Get the hell away from me!"

Shit! That's Nelyna! The merc laughs and fires at the kinetic barrier blocking his path. "Shut up. I'll get you outta there in no time. How the fuck does this thing still have power going?"

Son of a bitch! I sneak up behind him and I'm about to kill him when he's shot in the head. My eyes dart to Alex who has her gun raise.

"Asshole." She mumbles, lowering the gun.

Hm. Maybe I should take that gun back. Oh well. I go up to the cell door and spot Nelyna huddled in the corner of her cell.

She quickly stands and runs to the barrier. "Splicer! Thank the Goddess you came when you did! If that guy found a way inside…"

I press my hand against the barrier. "Don't worry I got you. Listen, the Blue Suns are attacking the Citadel for some reason. I'm going to take you and these two and anybody else we find along the way to my place. Don't worry its safe."

Nelyna nods. "Okay. Just get me out of here."

I nod and turn to Zero. "Zero. How do we get this open?"

He opens his omni-tool. "I can get it open. Just give me a… second. There we go."

The cell barrier vanishes with a click. Nelyna gives me a lengthy hug.

I release her and she gives Zero a hug as well, much to his surprise and apparent chagrin. She then gives a hug to Alex as well, who returns it, unlike Zero who was too taken off guard to do so.

I snicker and I touch my throat mic. "SNAKE: Is the channel still open with Vaga Kotka?"

"_Affirmative."_

Alex cuts in. "Wait. Vaga Kotka? The Fornax model?"

I look at her and cringe. Gross. "SNAKE: Contact Vaga Kotka."

"_Contacting."_

…

"Vaga, you there?"

I hear Vaga chuckle on the other line. _"Yeah. I'm at your place. The building is locked down tighter than a fortress man. You really know how to pick a good landlord. Apparently he's ex turian special forces. He put in a lot of anti-terrorism countermeasures in the building. Don't worry. He's got a code phrase to get in. It's 'Killorax the Barbarian burns his old loincloths.'"_

Mr. Dalarian? Ex spec ops eh? He always did seem a little shady.

I frown. "Cloak and dagger phrases huh? Did you come up with that one?"

"_I wish."_

"I'll meet you at my place. It may be a few hours before I get there. Are Nata and Ramlok okay?"

"_Yeah they're safe. Good luck."_

I nod and close the channel. "Alright you guys, we need to get to my apartment in the Zakera Ward. We'll help anybody along the way."

Nelyna suddenly perks up. "Wait! We need to go to the Embassies first to get my sister!"

Oh yeah! Her sister is the front desk lady at the Embassies! I remember that little side quest from ME2… oh… wait… Nelyna and her sister are supposed to die in the geth attack on the Citadel. Fuck if I'm going to let that happen!

I shake the thought from my mind. "C-Come on. Let's go get your sister."

We exit the building me in the lead with Nelyna and Alex in the middle and Zero bringing up the rear. We sprint across the courtyard of the station to an alleyway across the street.

We move as quietly as possible through the alleyway but we find ourselves at a dead end and are forced to go back out onto the street. Shit! A very large group of Blue Suns moves toward the C-Sec station. There are at least 25 of them and they're all armed to the teeth.

Zero motions us back and talks in a hushed tone. "Go back! They'll see us."

We move back into the alley and observe the mercs as they fan out in the courtyard all of their guns trained on the building.

One merc, a huge guy with tech armor, walks up to the building confidently. He holds a hand up to his neck and raises his omni-tool to the building. When he talks his voice is projected like from a bullhorn. "Listen up! We have the building surrounded! Surrender and come out single file with your hands in the air! All C-Sec officers will come out first!"

With a loud bang to punctuate his command, the man's head disappears in a red mist and he falls to the ground limp. The other mercs stare around frantically for the shooter. Another gets shot in the head by the sniper and he dies. Then a third. Then a fourth.

The Blue Suns mercs finally opt with just firing in all directions at windows and rooftops. We retreat further into the alley way as bullets starts striking the walls around us.

Who the hell is shooting at them?

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Like hell I'm going to let you take the station you bastards… 42 meters…"

Garrus lines up the crosshair on his scope with the merc commander's head. He takes a deep slow breath. He takes a second breath. Then a third. As he exhales he squeezes the trigger and the Blue Suns merc's head vanishes into a red mist.

Garrus quickly switches targets. He takes a breath and fires. 2. He takes aim at another. He takes a breath and fires. 3. Garrus takes aim again and fires. 4.

The mercs finally start shooting at Garrus. He backs away from the ledge and lets his gun cool. Garrus examines the model of the sniper rifle he's using. It's a HMWSR Master Sniper Rifle. Garrus shrugs. He doesn't know what the hell HMWSR is but it gets the job done damn well. Garrus takes notice that the mercs are firing in random directions and don't seem to know where he is. Perfect.

Garrus repositions himself at the ledge again and kills three more mercs. His visor automatically tags the next target for him and as he continues to pick off the clueless mercs.

His visor tags the next target: somebody way off to the side, probably a runner.

Garrus swings his sniper to his target but pauses. Splicer… Garrus's finger slips to the trigger…

No he's not worth it… not now.

Garrus takes aim at another merc and shoots him dead in the eye. "Scoped and dropped!"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Come on guys we need to find a way into the building before the Blue Suns find us!"

…

"Hey! Careful where you put your hands mister!"

I reposition my hands. "Sorry. Your fault for sitting on them."

I lift Alex straight up over my head, her in a sitting position on my hands. Her fault, not mine. But this is sort of embarrassing. Why is it that I'm only stuck in awkward situations around pretty girls? She moves her foot back and uses my face as a step stool to boost herself up to the edge of the window. I guess I may have deserved that.

She grabs the end of the window sill and pulls herself in. She pokes her head out after a second. "Okay guys it's clear."

I lift Nelyna up next. I grab her waist and lift her straight up over my head. She places her feet on my shoulders and Alex grabs her hands. I push her the rest of the way up and help her through the window.

Zero backs up to the wall, keeping his gun trained on the alley entrance. "How am I supposed to get in there?"

I scratch my head. "I'll jump and grab the window sill, then you climb up me."

He looks up at the window. "It's a 12 feet up a sheer wall to that window. How are you going to climb up there?"

I shake my head. "Oh Zero. You have so little faith in me."

I loosen up and jump up ten feet into the air. I grab the end of the window sill and get a good grip. "Alright. Climb up Zero."

"How did…" I hear him sigh. "Alright… Today's just getting weirder and weirder. "

I feel him grab onto my ankles and start climbing up me, using protruding pieces of armor as hand holds. "Holy-! Damn Zero! How much do you weigh?!"

He pulls himself up using my shoulders and I grunt from effort. "I'd prefer not to answer that, I recently got back from a 2 week vacation."

Zero hauls himself into the building through the window and helps me in. I breathe a sigh of exhaustion and sit on the ground. I look around at the room we're in. Someone's apartment, unfortunately it looks like they didn't make it back here. Alex and Nelyna are looking around in the bedrooms and Zero is out in the hall to make sure the coast is clear.

I hit myself with another dose of EVE and I feel some of my energy quickly returning. I get to my feet and stretch. Alex and Nelyna rejoin me in the main room as does Zero.

"Coast is clear in the hall."

Damn! I really wish I had my helmet! I could scope out people in the building! Ah well, no use in wallowing in self-pity. "Come on guys. It's a few more blocks to the Embassies."

We make our way downstairs and back out on the street with no trouble. It seems that the Blue Suns are focusing on capturing high value targets or resistance for now. We move down the abandoned streets toward the Embassies. I worry about getting into that area. There's practically no cover there and the place is probably packed with Blue Suns.

We move to the end of the street and I peek around the corner to the Presidium Tower base and the area with Dellan's Emporium and the Embassies and stuff.

Shit. Like I thought. Packed with Blue Suns. I guess they're using this place as their headquarters maybe. Gunships dot the area and hordes of Blue Suns patrol the area. It's a short run to the Embassies from our position but we'll be spotted for sure.

I turn to my group. "Listen guys, if we go out there we're sure to get spotted. So I'm going to cause a distraction on the other end of the Junction near the Emporium and the Consort Chambers. When it happens get to the Embassies. I'll get us a ride out of here too. Zero, keep them alive. Alex here's my pistol again. Nelyna you want one of my guns?"

She shakes her head. "No I picked up a pistol off of a dead merc."

I nod. "Okay. I'll see you guys soon. Be safe."

I peek out again… okay… I have like a… 3 second window here… okay… Go!

**Sometime Earlier…**

Pallin sits in his office staring angrily at the report in front of him. He can actually feel the scowl on his face.

Suddenly, what feels like a bunch of earth quakes shock the room. Pallin tumbles out of his chair but quickly recovers, sprinting to the balcony of his large office. He looks over the Presidium and sees scores of soldiers in Blue Armor charging from transport and gunships that land all over the area.

Pallin looks over the horror, sternly. His first thought is to make sure the people in the area are safe. He needs get out of here as quickly as possible, knowing that remaining here would trap him on the Presidium.

Pallin rushes to his desk from the balcony and drops to his knees, sliding the rest of the way to it.

He reaches into a small hidden alcove on the underside of his desk and pushes a button. This releases a hidden compartment in the desk, lowering an Avenger assault rifle and pistol.

Pallin takes both, holstering his pistol on his belt. He rushes out of his office, not bothering with closing the compartment. He moves down the hall to the lobby of the Embassies quickly, his rifle being cradled in his right arm with his left arm free to push aside the scores of panicked people.

He reaches the lobby and looks out toward the Presidium. Large numbers of citizens are rushing away from the Embassies, trying to get away. Suddenly gunfire causes them to start coming back toward the Embassies in a great wave.

Pallin backs up toward the wall. He can't escape, the Blue Suns have everyone cornered. He can't fight them off. The only option is to barricade himself in one of the Embassies.

He won't enjoy it, but the best place to go would be the Human Alliance Embassy. He recalled seeing an Alliance Naval Officer there. Another trained fighter would be beneficial to his survival.

Pallin notices someone to his left. He looks down at Saphyria, the receptionist for the Embassies cowing behind her desk. She looks up at him, silent terror in her eyes. He checks to make sure the huge crowd of people isn't too close yet but they are. Not much time left.

Pallin grabs Saphyria on the arm firmly and hauls her to her feet and pulls her toward the Embassies on the opposite end of the building just as people start getting into it again.

Pallin drags her up the stairs and to the entrance to the Human Alliance Embassy which has its door open. Not for long clearly as it just begins to close by the command of the ambassador.

Stern expression still plastered to his face, Pallin jerks his rifle out in between the doors as they close, causing them to halt and reopen. Pallin throws Saphyria into the room and turns to face the crowd of people rushing toward him looking for Sanctuary.

Pallin, being the person he is, knows that each Embassy has an emergency protocol in which the room can be locked from the inside and can only be opened from the inside. Also each Embassy is equipped with enough emergency food and water to last a week. Though between 30 people a week's worth of food won't last a single day. Pallin knows that if he lets anybody else into the room with him, they'll all die.

Pallin decides that if he can't save himself the whole Citadel will go down. He wants to live to fight another day.

Pallin raises his assault rifle and fires a burst of rifle fire into the ground in front of the approaching tide of people. They freeze in place and look at Pallin, begging.

Stern expression still glued to his face, Pallin backs into the room with his weapon raised, closing and locking the door behind him. He turns around and faces his company. Saphyria, the human, elcor, and volus ambassadors and the Alliance Officer. No other Detro's in here… In that case, Pallin will be able to survive longer.

* * *

><p><strong>Sometime Later…<strong>

Zero watches Splicer charge out of his cover and make a straight dash for the lake. Splicer reaches the railing and dives straight over and into the water, and he manages to do it without getting noticed.

Zero isn't entirely sure if he can trust him, but Splicer is his only option for survival now. Zero isn't really one to complain in situations that work. Not like this situation is suitable but…

_Gah! You're digressing again! In your own damn head too! Fucking nuts…_ Zero shakes thoughts from his mind. "Follow me close ladies. And keep your eyes off of my ass."

Zero moves back into the street, keeping his shotgun at the ready. He carefully sneaks around to the other side of a building. This way is closer to the Embassies but it's more open and there's more Blue Suns. But hopefully if his distraction does its job, the Blue Suns will go away from Zero and toward Splicer.

Zero turns to the asari and the human. "Alright. Now it's just a matter of waiting for Splicer to finish his job."

They nod together. They look at each other after they nod in unison.

"Whoa that was totally by accident." Alex says with a laugh.

"Where should we hide and wait?" The attractive asari whose name Zero can't remember, if he heard it at all.

Zero looks around and spots an alcove in the building that was being used as a stall for a shop.

He jogs over to it and checks behind the counter and in the dark corners to make sure it's clear. Zero motions them over once he's positive it's free of dangers. They huddle into the alcove together while Zero checks up and down the street a few times.

Zero soon joins them, taking a seat next to Alex and laying his shotgun down at his feet.

* * *

><p><strong>Some Large Amount of Time Later…<strong>

Zero is shaken awake by the asari woman. "Detective. Detective! It's been hours! I don't know if Splicer is coming back."

Zero rubs his sore eyes. It feels like an eternity since he had some sleep. Zero frowns. "How long has it been?"

"Hours! I don't know exactly how long but something is going on with the Blue Suns." She says.

Zero pulls himself to his feet and goes to the corner of the building again. He peeks around the corner.

There's even more Blue Suns here now than there was before. Damn… What's going on here?

Then, something catches Zero's eye. Zero takes out a small scope from his belt and puts it to his eye. "There! That's Splicer! What's he doing on the building?"

Zero watches as Splicer circles in a large loop on the roof of the building, only to stop and wave in his direction. Was that a signal?

Splicer raises his arm and aims it downwards at something out of sight. A bolt of electricity arcs out from his arm towards his target, resulting in an absolutely colossal explosion, followed by every landed gunship getting blown to pieces except one. Said gunship soon takes off and flies away in the opposite direction.

"What was that?!" The asari and the human run up behind Zero and gasp when they see all the fire. All the Blue Suns are running towards the flaming debris, trying to save their friends most likely.

Zero nods and draws his shotgun. "Come on! This is our chance!"

Zero runs full speed out toward the Embassies. The place looks deserted. The group hides behind the front desk once inside.

Zero peers over the top of the desk. "Alright. Looks like they didn't spot us. Uh… Nellayena was it? Where do you think your sister is?"

Nellayena opens her omni-tool and hacks into the security system. She quickly scans over the video feeds. "It looks like… there are some people holed up in the Alliance embassy. Up those stairs, last door on the right. And it's Nelyna by the way."

Zero nods. "Okay let's go."

Zero quickly rolls out of cover and motions Alex and Nelyna to go up the stairs and to the Alliance embassy. Zero quickly follows them to the door.

Zero bangs on it. "This is C-Sec. Open up."

No response.

Nelyna walks up to the door. "Saphyria! Saph! It's me, Nelyna! Come on open the door!"

Muffled voices can be heard behind the door. The voices get more heated then the door finally unlocks and opens.

An asari, assumedly Saphyria, rushes out of the room and hugs Nelyna in a tight embrace.

"I thought you were dead Nelyna!" She gasps, her voice havocked with sobs.

Nelyna sniffs and smiles. "No I wasn't at the Consorts office luckily."

Saphyria pulls away and looks at Nelyna confused. "Where were you?"

Nelyna rolls her eyes. "It's a really long story, but I'll give you the gist. I ended up getting arrested with Splicer!"

Saphyria raises her eyebrows. "Splicer? The merc that got that serial killer? No way!"

Zero shakes his head and steps up to the pair. "Listen ladies I love gossip just as much as you two but we need to get inside otherwise we might get spotted."

Nelyna nods. "Right."

Nelyna and Saphyria go into the Alliance embassy together followed by Alex. Zero backs into the room keeping an eye on the hall. Once the door closes he locks it and takes a look around the room.

Not including Alex, Nelyna or Saphyria there are 5 other people in the room. There are two humans, a turian crouched on the balcony who is watching the Blue Suns trying to put out the fires, an elcor and a volus.

Alex steps up to the turian. "Executor Pallin! You're okay!"

Pallin turns around from the window and lowers his assault rifle. "Miss Silva? Detective Sageaus? What are you doing here?"

Zero raises his eyebrows. "Executor. I'm glad to see you're alright."

Pallin nods. "What are you doing here, Detective?"

Zero rubs the bridge of his nose and scratches his mandible. "It's a long story but I'll give you the short version. After I brought Splicer back to the station, the attack started. Everyone at the station packed together in the lobby but Splicer, Alex, Splicer's friend and I managed to get out of there before it was attacked by some Blue Suns. We came here because Splicer's friend's sister works here. As you already know the place is packed with Blue Suns. Splicer split up with us a while back to create a distraction for us to make it over here. But I haven't seen him since the explosion."

A human man in a tan colored suit walks up to the group. "So he's the one that caused the explosion?"

Zero nods. "Yes. I saw him. He also said he'd be getting us a ride out of here."

The human scowls. "Then where is he?"

Zero shakes his head. "I already said I don't know."

The human man rolls his eyes. "Typical. He probably ran off. Mercenaries can't be trusted."

The other human man, this one in a blue military uniform, gets up from a chair. "Now Udina, you've got to have faith in humanity every once in a while. You are the Alliance ambassador after all."

The human named Udina shakes his head. "Please. You don't even know for sure if he is human. Do you Captain?"

Pallin steps in. "He is human, ambassador. And Captain Anderson is right, this one is different, believe it or not."

"With eager glee: Wow. I cannot believe it. We will get to meet Splicer in person." The elcor ambassador says.

The volus throws up his arms in frustration. "Bah! You are so naïve Calyn! Splicer this, Splicer that. Ooh Splicer is a hero! Please. He caught one serial killer and everybody loves the damn merc. I'll bet he's an asshole in person."

"With tired annoyance: That one serial killer killed 14 people in 5 months, Din." Calyn says, sighing in monotone, which is the oddest noise Zero's ever heard.

"So did a lot of serial killers." Din retorts

Suddenly the room is bathed in a bright light. A gunship is hovering outside the embassy with its gun already spinning and ready.

"Everybody hit the deck!" Anderson roars.

Everybody falls to the ground, but the gun never starts firing. Zero looks up just as the gunship starts turning around. The gunship backs closer to the balcony and the back opens to reveal Splicer standing in the doorway.

He waves. "Hey guys! I got us a ride!"

A ramp extends from the back of the gunship and it hangs over the balcony. Splicer beckons. "Come on guys! Before the Blue Suns spot us!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Cool start bro. Sorry but this was so long it was crappy, but this is already a 5 part event and I didn't want it any longer than it was. Sorry.**

**UPDATE: This is a revised version of the original chapter. I changed a few things here and there.**


	13. Chapter 13 C OIW! Part 2: Pain!

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

"**A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."**

**~John Barrymore~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 13: Crisis! On Infinite Wards! – Part 2…!<strong>

**Pain!**

**1:19 PM March 14 2182**

* * *

><p>I help Alex into the gunship then turn to the last two people in the room: Calyn the elcor diplomat and Din the volus diplomat.<p>

"Uh sorry guys but there's no more room in the gunship. I'll drop these guys off back at my place then I'll come back for you two." I say apologetically then determined.

"Typical humans."

Calyn raises a hand. "With reluctant confidence and generosity: You need not human. We will barricade ourselves here. If any Blue Suns come in then I can defend us. With pride: I am the galactic elcor arm wrestling champion three years running and as an ambassador, I am trained in all forms of elcor hand to hand combat as well as several forms of turian martial arts. With nervousness: Besides, that gunship looks a little cramped and we elcor are not comfortable in small spaces."

Hm impressive. "Are you sure?"

The elcor nods. "Confidently: Do not worry human."

"Well alright. Be safe." I say, swayed only because the elcor said 'Confidently.'

I retract the ramp and close the door to the gunship. The seats are all filled except for the pilots chair which is reserved for me. Earlier it only took me about an hour to set up the distraction. All that time it took me to start the distraction was spent trying to learn how to fly one of these things. Then I found out SNAKE has a piloting program installed.

As I head to the pilots chair I steal a glance at Anderson. I shiver. It's like a dream standing near somebody that until a few months ago I thought didn't exist. Keith David's voice embodied in an entity that really shouldn't exist.

I take a seat in the pilot's chair. "SNAKE: Take us to my apartment."

"_Affirmative."_

The gunship starts flying off towards the Wards. I feel a hand on my shoulder I look up, it's Nelyna. "Hey Nelyna."

"Hey. Thanks for helping me get my sister. Oh! I almost forgot."

I turn my chair around and face the passengers. Looks like Nelyna is going to introduce me to everyone. Ugh… This is what I hate about living in the Mass Effect Universe, I keep getting told information that I already know. Nelyna gestures to her sister. "This is my sister, Saphyria."

"Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you." She says, smiling at me.

I smile back. Nelyna gestures to Anderson. "And this is Captain Anderson."

Anderson nods at me. Ah come on! Talk Keith David talk! I want to hear that magical voice!

Nelyna gestures at Udina. "And this is Ambassador Udina."

Udina gives me a curt nod. I smile and wave. He scowls and turns away. He, he.

Zero shifts in his seat. "So where exactly are we going?"

How many times am I going to have to say this? "We're going to my apartment building. My landlord is ex turian Special Forces and he's got the place locked down tight. We need a code phrase to get in but I know it."

Anderson leans forward. "What is the code phrase?"

"Killorax the Barbarian burns his old loincloths." I say without hesitation.

The cabin is silent except for Alex who is snickering. I shrug. "I didn't come up with it."

Zero sits back in his seat again. He keeps fidgeting he must be nervous or something. "So after we get to your apartment building, what then?"

"Well, then I'll drop you guys off at my place and I'll get some able fighters and take the fight back to the Blue Suns." I respond confidently.

Pallin raises a hand. "I'm in."

I raise my eyebrows. "Alright Executor, I look forward to seeing you in action."

Zero nods. "I'm in too."

Anderson raises his hand. "Me too. I'd like to see how well those Blue Suns stand against a group of able soldiers."

Alright! Got my own little Mass Effect team right here! "Alright so I think the first thing we should do is regroup with some C-Sec so that we have a fighting chance when…"

A high pitched beeping and whining starts coming from the dashboard. I grimace at the unpleasant noise. "What the hell is that? Damn that's annoying!"

I spin my chair around and look at the dashboard. It's all buttons and levers to me. "Uh SNAKE: What's that annoying noise?"

"_Its purpose is to inform you of incoming surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles." SNAKE's disembodied deep, mechanical, and warbling voice responds._

Well that's a strangely specific noise. "So… is there an incoming surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile?"

"_Affirmative."_

"SHIT!"

The missile collides with the side of the gunship causing it to spin completely out of control. The occupants of the gunship get thrown out of their seats except for Udina who actually strapped himself in. I hang onto the armrests of the pilots chair for dear life as the spinning gunship quickly loses altitude.

I force my eyes open and watch helplessly as we quickly approach a tall building...

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

"Splicer? Splicer? Are you alright?" Alex says shaking me awake.

I groan… "I don't feel good."

"Come on get up. You probably have a concussion but you have to get up." She says her voice brightened by humor slightly.

I force my eyes open and stare at Alex with contempt. "I _probably_ have a concussion? Well do you think I do or not?"

She shrugs. "Probably."

I sit up and put a hand to my head, only to pull it back when I feel it is drenched in blood. Yep I do probably have a concussion.

I slowly get to my feet and shake my head. Whoa! That wasn't smart. Suddenly my head feels really hot and my blurry vision and the ringing in my ears dissipate. Ah cool! Fast Healing works for concussions too. I didn't think it would but it does! Awesome!

I blink a few times and look around. We seem to be in some apartment building or something. With me in the wrecked room are Alex who seems okay other than a few cuts, burns, and… torn clothing… Anyways there's also Nelyna who seems okay, Saphyria who is unconscious, Pallin who seems alright if not a little shocked, and Zero who is out in the hallway checking to see if it's clear.

Hang on… "Wait. Where's Udina and Anderson?"

I hear a voice on the other side of the wreckage of the gunship. "I'm here, Splicer."

That's Anderson, no doubt about it. "Where's Udina?"

I see Anderson's face appear in a small space in the wreckage and debris. "He's here too. He's unconscious but he's okay. He got trapped in the ship because he was the only one strapped in. I got him out but we got trapped here on the other side when the wall collapsed."

I curse and think for a second. "Is there any way you can get to the other side?"

"I don't think so. Don't worry I'll keep Udina safe. You guys just go on without us. If we find a way through, we'll join up with you guys at the apartment building."

Dammit! I can't leave them here! If they get killed then that will TOTALLY change the events of Mass Effect 1! "No! I can't leave you here alone!"

Anderson stares at me hard. "Listen son, I understand where you're coming from. But I am a seasoned Alliance soldier. I've fought in more battles than you have years to your name and I can handle a few mercs."

I look away. Shit! I bend down and pick up Pallin's assault rifle. I hand it to Anderson through the tiny opening. "Listen. When I get these guys to my apartment building, I'm coming back for you."

Anderson nods. "It's up to you. We'll hold out here until you come back. If not then we'll make our own way to your building."

I nod. "Alright, do you remember the code phrase?"

Anderson nods. "Yes."

"Good cause I don't want to repeat it. Good luck Anderson."

I turn to the rest of my group who look at me expectantly. "Alright guys. We're off to my apartment. Pallin, can you carry Saphyria?"

Pallin nods and scoops up Saphyria in his arms. I nod and open my omni-tool and check where we are on the Citadel. "Alright. We're about 10 blocks from my apartment building. We're going to have to move through the Market District on our way. Zero you take point. I'll bring up the rear."

Zero draws his shotgun and leads the group out of the wrecked room and then out of the building.

The street is just as deserted as the rest.

Zero leads the group into the Market District where we slowly make our way down the abandoned streets. As we turn a corner we stop abruptly at the sight of a squad of mercs standing in a circle around a group of hostages.

One hostage spots us. Oh please don't shout at us for help. The hostage crawls a little towards us. "HELP US!"

Shit. The mercs whirl around and start firing at us immediately. Bullets start striking my shields. I grab Nelyna and Alex and pull them behind me to protect them from the bullets. I drag them quickly into an abandoned store where we quickly dive over the counter.

Just as I leap over the counter my shields fail and a bullet hits me in my upper thigh a little too close to my Misters for my preference. Actually I would have preferred not to get shot at all. I fall to the ground behind the counter and clutch at my leg growling in pain between my teeth.

"Are you alright?" Nelyna asks as she examines the wound.

"I'll be fine. Did anyone get shot?" I say fighting off pain as I examine my companions.

Alex shakes her head, holding her gun close to her chest. Nelyna ignores my statement and looks over the top of the counter. "Where's Saphyria?"

I drag myself over so that I can sit against the counter. I look down at my leg. Shit, that looks bad. My Fast Healing is taking a little long to heal… I watch as it starts to heal, but far slower than normal. What the hell? Why is it taking so long?

I ignore my wound for the moment and peek over and spot Pallin in a shop across the way from us. He fires a large caliber pistol at the mercs. I point at him. "There's Pallin. She's probably behind the counter with him. Now get down!"

I pull Nelyna down with me. Oh wait. Where's Zero? I peek over again scanning the area. The mercs are holding their position, surrounding the hostages firing in separate directions at us, Pallin and… Zero! There he is! He's pinned down behind a small trash can. Shit! I've got to get attention off of him or he'll be taken out quick!

I raise my assault rifle and fire a long burst at the mercs. The bullets travel exactly as planned, hitting most of the mercs, but bouncing harmlessly off of their shields.

The mercs take the bait and fire a combined volley of bullets at me. I quickly drop down behind cover as my shields drop down dangerously low.

I let my gun cool and I activate Incinerate. I pop out of cover once my shield is charged and hit the group with a burst of flame. They stumble from the attack but their shields all hold. Oh shit! That attack was reckless I hope that the hostages are okay.

I look for Zero again and fail to spot him. Then I see him sneaking around the mercs from behind. Yeah! Smart! And here I was expecting him to make a run for Pallin.

I see Zero take cover behind a large planter. He waves. I raise a fist and start firing at the mercs.

The mercs redirect their fire at me again but quickly get disoriented when one merc gets shot from behind by a shotgun blast that went right through his shield.

The mercs whirl around and start firing at Zero. I take the opportunity and kill a merc with an accurate burst to the head and another drops dead from a headshot from Pallin.

With only three mercs left the remaining mercs decide to take the hostages as meat shields. Damn! I draw my pistol and aim it very carefully. I shoot one merc dead in the nose and he dies, releasing his hostage. The hostage makes a break for us.

"No don't!" I shout at him.

The hostage is gunned down by the merc facing us. Shit! The other merc is facing Zero and they're back to back with hostages protecting their bodies.

The merc facing us suddenly executes his hostage for some reason.

What the fuck? I quickly gun him down.

The other merc whirls around turning round and round aiming his gun at both us and Zero. Pallin and I hop out of cover and advance on the merc as does Zero. I limp painfully over to them however. My leg is throbbing and I can feel blood running down my leg into my boot. I try and keep a stoic expression despite the excruciating pain.

"Get away! Get the hell away or I'll blast this bitch's head off!" The merc roars at us.

"Just let the hostage go and we'll spare you." Pallin shouts at the merc.

The merc scowls but releases the hostage who starts running toward Pallin. Suddenly the merc raises his gun at the hostage, one last act of defiance.

I raise my gun at him. No! I won't get him in time!

Suddenly the merc is illuminated by a blue light and he is torn in half by a powerful biotic Warp. The hell? Who did that?

The merc falls to the ground revealing Zero, who glows with a biotic aura and has his hand up, his shotgun at his side in his other hand. I holster my rifle and approach him. "Zero? You're a biotic?"

He lowers his hand and his aura dissipates and he holsters his shotgun. "Uh yeah. Did I forget to mention that?"

I nod. As does Pallin. The fuck? Pallin steps forward trying to push the human woman off of him. "Detective Sageaus, you're a biotic?"

"You didn't even tell him?" I say glancing in between the two.

Zero shrugs. "I guess it slipped my mind."

Pallin and I look at each other. I shrug, Pallin shakes his head. Pallin turns to the hostage. "Are you alright miss?"

The woman nods. "Y-yes, I'm okay."

"What's your name?" I say drawing nearer.

"V-Veronica."

Bleh. "Alright Veronica, glad to have you with us. Just stick with us and you'll be fine."

Alex and Nelyna rejoin us. Nelyna immediately gets on Pallin's case. "Pallin! Where's my sister?" Nelyna says pleadingly.

Pallin looks over at the store he was at. "Oh yeah."

He runs back inside and carries Saphyria back out. "She's still out cold but she's alright."

"Okay let's keep moving. You're on point Zero. It's only a few more blocks now." I say as I gesture down the street.

We quickly make our way out of the Market District, despite being slowed down because of my damn leg, and into another Residential District, mine to be precise. My district is called Shin Akiba and there're mostly humans here but most of the buildings are owned by Council Races. My building is no exception.

Just a few more blocks to go.

A very loud bang reverberates in the still air. I hear a gasp of pain. I spin around. Oh shit! Alex! I see Alex drop to the ground a large bloodstain expanding on her shirt.

Another loud bang rings out and Pallin yelps in pain and falls to the ground. Shit! I spin around again searching the buildings for the sniper. A third bang rings out and the shot was aimed at me. The shot hits my shield, breaking it and I feel the bullet hit my shoulder and ricochet away. I spot the sniper.

Anger fuels my plasmid as I activate Telekinesis and throw a dumpster into the window where the shot came from. I follow up by hitting the hole in the wall with Incinerate after Incinerate until my EVE runs out. I let my arm fall to my side from exhaustion. Fuck…

Rough coughing brings me back to reality. I whirl around. Pallin is clutching at the side of his head with blue turian blood seeping in between his fingers and Alex is still alive! Fuck that was a bad sniper. I rush to their aid. I kneel next to Alex and apply pressure to the large bullet wound on her shoulder just above the clavicle and close to her neck.

I look over my shoulder at Pallin. "Pallin, you alright?"

He nods taking his hand off his face and hissing in pain. "Yeah, it's just a graze."

I look up at Zero. "You got any medi-gel?"

He shakes his head. Fuck!

I look up at Nelyna. "Nelyna, I need some cloth."

She nods and starts tearing at the hem of her shirt.

I look back down at Alex who looks up at me with fear in her eyes. I place a comforting hand on the side of her head while keeping pressure applied with the other hand. "You're going to be fine. You hear me? I'm not going to let you die. You'll be just fine, okay? You'll be alright. You just stay awake, okay? Hey look at me!" I look her dead in the eyes. "You stay awake. I got something at my place that'll fix you right up. Just stay with me."

Nelyna hands me the cloth and I wrap Alex's shoulder up with it. Shit. She's bleeding a lot. I wish she got shot in the arm, I could have made a tourniquet to staunch the bleeding, these wounds are harder to work with. Well actually if I'm wishing for things I'd wish nobody got shot. In fact I'd wish that the Blue Suns never attacked the Citadel in the first place.

I hoist Alex up in my arms, ignoring the pain screaming in protest from my leg. I shift my weight to my other leg and nod at Pallin who picks up Saphyria again. "Zero! Let's go we got to get to my apartment building now!"

Zero nods and runs down the street. We follow quickly behind I keep an eye on Alex, making sure she's keeping her eyes open. We finally round the corner to my block and we immediately run up to my apartment building. The windows are all covered by what looks like heavy metal plating.

We run up to the door which has some kind of kinetic barrier in front of it. Zero runs up to it and examines it. "The hell? How do we get in?"

I nod at the intercom. "Try the intercom. Hurry!"

Zero holds the button for the intercom. "Hello, anybody in there?"

I can hear the rough, grizzled voice of my landlord on the other line. _"Pass code?"_

Zero sighs. "Killorax the Barbarian burns his old loincloths."

The shielding shuts off immediately and we instantly go inside. We enter the lobby which is dark save for some emergency lighting. A few armed and armored security guards from the building aim rifles and shotguns at us. My landlord, Haephis Dalarian is in the middle of the group, fully armored, with a high caliber SMG in his hands.

"Mr. Jackson what-" He starts.

I ignore him and make a straight break for the stairs. Why did I pick an apartment on the seventh floor? I run up the flights of stairs one after another. As I go the trip seems to take longer and longer. I fight for breath and try to ignore the growing numbness in my leg but I don't slow down. If I do Alex might die! I look down at her. Her head is lolling back and her eyes are closed. Her skin is very pale and blood flows far slower from her wound. No, no, no!

I reach the seventh floor and make a straight dash for my apartment. I kick the door open and run inside. Nata and Ramlok jump at the noise and look at me in shock. I see Vaga come out of my room and point an assault rifle at me. I ignore him and run into my room. I place Alex down on the bed carefully and run to my desk.

My old backpack sits underneath it. I grab it and take out one of my medkits. I take out one of the syringes and run back over to Alex. I inject it into her arm and look at her wound.

Come on… Come on! It should work by now! I get another syringe and inject it into her neck. Shit, come on! Work dammit! Work…

I drop the syringes on the ground and bury my face in my hands. I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up at Vaga. Nata and Ramlok are standing in the doorway.

"She's gone." Vaga says

I look away from him. Why does this bother me so much? I've seen lots of people die. Lots strangers, lots friends. Even family. I assume by now that my family is dead. But people I've come to care about recently too. People like Jin or even those hostages earlier. How long have I known this girl? Hours? Why is it that when I looked into this girls eyes and unconsciously lied about her being alright, that I felt myself say that with every bit of sincerity in my being. And now, that that lie has come around to bite me in the ass, I feel like I am the worse person in the world. When I told her that she would be alright, I meant it. How could I have lied to her? Why would I do that?

Vaga kneels next to me. "You did mean it. I know you did. You didn't lie to her, alright?"

I squeeze my eyes shut and cover them with my hands and I feel tears wet my palms. "… Fucking inner monologue…"

Suddenly Alex inhales lungfuls of air and coughs up some blood. My head darts up. I stand and hold her still as she looks around frantically. The wound in her shoulder, just above her clavicle, is completely healed.

Alex coughs again and looks around the room. "What… What uh… What happened?"

I smile. "I'm gonna give it to you straight. You died for about a minute."

I bend down and pick up a syringe. Damn… good stuff. I toss it to the side and look back down at Alex. Her eyes are closed again and she lies very still. Oh no not again! I then notice her steady breathing. Oh… she's sleeping…

Phew that was scary. I better go find Zero and the others.

I back away from the bed and walk out of my room I stop next to Nata before I go. "Keep an eye on her would you? I'll be back soon."

Nata nods but before I can walk away she stops me with a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Hey. I'm glad you're okay."

I look over my shoulder at her. I give her a long hug in response. After a moment or so we release each other and I leave my apartment. I head back downstairs and into the lobby, my leg paining me badly. I should've hit myself with some of my med-kit Cell Serum.

I look down at my leg which is still healing. Nah, using another syringe of Cell Serum would be a waste, I should just wait for Fast Healing to kick in. It should've worked its magic by now though.

My group spots me coming in. Zero walks up to me quickly. "Hey is she…"

I shake my head. "She'll be fine. We made it… just in time."

Zero breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank the Spirits. I would have hated to see her go. Such a nice girl, for a human."

I raise an eyebrow at him. He rolls his eyes. "You're alright too."

I smile at him. "Thanks Zero."

We rejoin the group. Looks like Saphyria FINALLY woke up. "Hey Saphyria, how are you?"

She looks up at me. "I-I'm okay. Just a little dizzy."

"Do you think you can get up to my apartment on the seventh floor? You and Nelyna could go up there and get some water or something."

Saphyria nods. "That sound nice. I think I can do that."

I help her to her feet and redirect her to Nelyna. "Alright. It's room 7117."

Nelyna nods and walks with Saphyria to the stairwell. I turn to Pallin and Zero and Mr. Dalarian.

I look around the room at the several occupants. "Hey where's that hostage we saved? Uh… Veronica?"

Pallin shrugs. "I don't know. I noticed she was gone when we got here. I think she might have run off when the sniper started shooting."

I frown. "Well that was dumb. I hope she's okay."

Mr. Dalarian shrugs. "If she ran off then she must've not been that smart. She probably deserves to get captured again."

"Are you serious?" Zero exclaims astounded. "Nobody deserves that."

Mr. Dalarian shrugs. I roll my eyes. Oh Mr. Dalarian, always the hard ass. Anyways…

"What's the plan then?" Pallin says straightening himself.

"Well…" I start… I really wish I had thought more on this. "Well first I think I'm going to head back to the crash site of the gunship to get Anderson and Udina. Then when I get back I think we all need a little rest. Uh when we get back and we've gotten a little food and some rest then I think we can make a proper plan of attack."

Pallin nods. "Sounds like a plan. I'll see if I can get into contact with some officers in the area, see if they can meet us here."

"Whoa, whoa. Now listen, I love the idea of striking back at the Blue Suns," Mr. Dalarian interjects, "But I got a building full of people to take care of here. If I start letting anybody in here then I'll get overloaded."

Pallin looks over at him slowly… here we go… "Excuse me? Are you fucking serious? I am Executor of C-Sec and I will not have my authority in question. Sorry about this but I'm going to have to make this building the official field headquarters of Citadel Security. You are hereby relieved of responsibility over this building and all people contained within it until further notice."

Mr. Dalarian scowls, after a long silence he says to Pallin, in a tone coated with ice, "Alright then, Executor. I am at your disposal."

Pallin nods. "Good. Splicer, will you be going alone on your little sojourn back to the gunship wreckage?"

I nod. "Yeah I can move faster and quieter on my own and I don't want to get anybody else hurt."

Pallin nods again. "Alright. While you're out I'll have to ask you a favor then…"

* * *

><p><strong>4:14 PM March 14, 2182<strong>

I vault over another pile of rubble and land painfully on my bad leg. The hell? Why does it still hurt? I look down at it only to find that it still isn't entirely healed. In fact, it's hardly healed at all. So much for Fast Healing.

I head toward the apartment building where Anderson and Udina wait, limping the whole way. I wish I had gotten their omni-tool information so that I could have contacted them.

I look up at the tall building and easily spot the wreckage of the gunship still jammed in the wall of the building, around the third or fourth floor.

I roll my shoulders and start heading into the building.

Suddenly, I hear gunfire coming from somewhere above me. I look up in confusion and see muzzle flashes and flying bullets in the low light coming from the room where Anderson and Udina should be. Oh no!

A large explosion then blasts outward from the building. Oh shit! The wreckage of the gunship creaks and moans in stress then it finally topples out of the building and straight towards me. I dive into the building, barely making it out of the path of the gunship as it falls. The gunship crashes to the ground and blocks the entrance with a pile of twisted flaming metal.

I look up at it from the floor of the lobby of the building. Fuck that was a close one.

I start to stand but a sudden explosion from the wreckage of the gunship throws me off of my feet again. I fly backwards into the wall, painfully. An audible crack can be heard but I can't tell if it's my ribs or the painting that I flew into at the moment.

I bring a hand up to my forehead. I pull it back and examine my palm when I feel fresh blood on it. I bring a hand up to the side of my head and find a long jagged scratch on my scalp the side of my head from shrapnel most likely.

The wound starts to heal from my Fast Healing tonic. Oh sure, you work for that but not for my leg? I start to stand, but pain tears through multiple parts of my body. I look down at myself.

Holy crap.

A large metal piece of bent pipe or tubing extends from my belly, the least armored part of my body. I also feel a sawing, grinding pain in my side, probably a few broken ribs. Also it seems the explosion opened my leg wound again and now I am bleeding far more profusely.

Okay, I'll admit, this is a bad situation I'm in. I grab the pipe and start trying to pull it out. Not only is it hard to grab because it's covered in my blood, but it is also jammed into the wall behind me.

Alright, new strategy. I do my best to straighten the bent pipe and push myself off of the wall. I use the pipe to guide myself off it, each inch makes my stomach erupt with pain. Only a few inches in, the pain becomes unbearable and I fall back against the wall, sliding back down the pipe.

I need to shorten the pipe, otherwise I'll be stuck here.

I activate Winter's Blast and free the pipe almost to my belly. I then raise my arm over my head and shatter the pipe. I pull myself off it quickly and fall to the floor coughing blood and clutching painfully at my stomach.

After a while, I get to my feet, with some difficulty and start heading toward the stairs with my pistol in my hand, my other hand clutching at my stomach.

I don't know how well I'll be able to fight off any mercs, but hopefully there won't be too many. I ascend the stairs slowly and it takes me an` eternity to get to the fourth floor.

The gunfire has ceased and the area is completely silent. Never the less I am cautious as I move down the hall toward the hole in the wall that leads to the wrecked room where Anderson and Udina should be.

I stumble into it and look around. I'm so lightheaded that I can't count really well but there's… a lot of dead Blue Suns in the room. Wow, Anderson wasn't lying. He can hold his own.

I look over where the wreckage used to be. There's lots of dead Blue Suns congregated around the blast site, but only one body behind it.

Oh no… Anderson.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: O.O ... What will happen next? Check it out next Tuesday.**

**The Reapers arrived today, I got the Collector's Edition of Mass Effect 3. I'm having a little trouble with getting the soundtrack, but otherwise I'm living, breathing, eating Mass Effect 3 right now. It's so good. Hope you guys like it as much as I do. **

**As always, thanks for reading, I want to hear your thoughts on this one, and I'll see you next Tuesday.**

**Love,**

**N7 Operative Mockingbird79**


	14. Chapter 14 C OIW! Part 3: Holiday

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: This chapter will be a little slower to start than the other ones. I wanted to show everybody relaxing and stuff. Action will find its way in eventually, just like all the other chapters.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>A riot is the language of the unheard."<strong>

**~Martin Luther King Jr.~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 14: Crisis! On Infinite Wards! – Part 3<strong>

**Holiday**

**6:44 PM March 14, 2182**

* * *

><p>No… No fucking way! No!<p>

I drop to the ground next to Anderson's body. He lays face down, his clothes and skin blackened from the explosion. Udina is nowhere in sight.

"Udina?" I call out weakly. Silence responds.

I turn Anderson over onto his back. I place my ear against his chest and I close my eyes, listening…

Come on…

Suddenly a loud gunshot makes me jump. I look up and see Anderson pointing a gun at something behind me. I turn around just in time to see another Blue Suns merc standing with a large bullet hole in his eye piece before he falls to the ground.

Oh shit! Oh thank God, the Goddess, the Spirits, the Ancestors, Buddha, Ganesh, Confucius, Athiesmo, and all the other assorted religions! He's alive! HE'S ALIVE! Phew… this has been a really traumatic couple of hours for me emotionally. I'll be thankful for that rest later.

Anderson coughs and lets his hand and head fall back down onto the floor. "You came back. Good timing too. Actually? I could've used you a minute or two ago."

I look down at my hand covering the wound on my stomach from the pipe. My hand is covered in blood, I might as well have dipped my hand in a bucket of blood, and my under-armor jumpsuit is sticking to my skin and leaking blood.

"I was a little… tied down." I get to my feet, with some difficulty. "Are you alright, Anderson? Can you walk?"

He nods. "I think so. That explosion threw me against the wall and knocked me unconscious. I think the Blue Suns took Udina."

I hold out a hand to help him to his feet. "Well then we'll just have to go get him back then."

Anderson takes my hand and I start pulling him up but I drop him when an explosion of pain erupts from both the site of my broken ribs and the wound from the pipe in my belly on the opposite side of my torso.

I clutch at my sides and cry out in pain as I drop to a knee.

Anderson gets up and places a hand on my back. "Splicer, what's wrong? You hurt?"

I nod, my face twisted in agony. "When the gunship fell… It exploded and threw me against a wall. That broke a few ribs. There must've been a stray pipe from the wall because I got impaled on it. Not to mention that I got shot in the leg earlier."

"We need to get you back to your apartment building." Anderson says instantly.

I shake my head. "No. Not yet. I need to get Pallin some armor from the Hahne-Kedar store in the Market District here in Shin Akiba. Then we can head back down to my Residential Block. It's on the way don't worry."

Anderson shakes his head. "No. Sorry. But we're heading straight to your place. Let's go."

I look up at him. Aw, what the fuck. I'm hurt, Pallin will understand. "Alright. You're right. Help me up. We're going to have to go out a different exit, the entrance is blocked by the gunship."

Anderson pulls me to my feet and supports my left side, which is the side where my broken ribs and my bad leg are. I keep my right hand over my jagged pipe wound.

We head downstairs and into the lobby. Anderson puts me down on a chair. "Wait here, I'm going to look for another way out."

"Wait." I draw my shotgun and hand it to him. "Take this. It's going to be tight quarters."

Anderson nods and runs off with my shotgun.

To pass the time, I focus on trying to stay alive. When Anderson finally returns, his expression is grim. "There's no other way out. We're trapped in here."

I shake my head. "Nah I think I can get us out. Just help me up."

He helps me to my feet and I stand on my own, most of my weight distributed to my right side. "SNAKE: How much EVE do I have?"

"_One hypo remaining."_

I slap my chest gently and inject myself with more EVE. I focus and activate Telekinesis. I raise my hands and start pushing the wreckage out of the way, roaring in agony in between clenched teeth as I push. The challenge proves far too taxing on my body and after a few seconds I fall to the ground, all the energy, willpower, and EVE drained from my body.

The wreckage is at least out of the way. But now I fear I'm going to slow Anderson down. No matter what he has to survive. Even if he has to leave me here.

Anderson moves to help me up but I push him away weakly. "Just leave me here. I got nothing left in me. Energy, drive, blood, you name it. I'm dead weight now."

"This isn't the time to be a hero, Splicer." Anderson says with a shake of his head.

I shake my head in disagreement, almost frustration. "Hero? I'm no hero. I'm tired of people saying that I am. It wasn't hard catching those criminals. I'll tell you who a hero is. A hero is somebody who saves people. I just get them hurt. A hero is someone like… Commander Shepard. He fought off hordes of batarian slavers on Elysium nearly single handed and saved countless lives. Me? I am… a possible hero. Is it possible that Pendosa would have gone around and killed every last person on the Citadel like some unstoppable force? No he would have been caught eventually. Or even now, a hero would… I don't know… disarm a Blue Suns super bomb and save the Citadel.

"I'm just some 23 year old idiot who has really bad luck and really good timing. I'm sure Garrus could have caught Pendosa given a few more days but I took the job because I was bored. You hear me? Bored. He's wrong about me only doing it for the money, because I don't need it. But I am just a showman. I make pretty displays and I put on a good show for the press and stuff. Not on purpose but still. But what am I? Just some really unlucky bastard who got thrown into this life against his will. I lost everything I once had… twice. And I'm not ready to lose it all again. But I haven't had it long enough to want it back so just go. You don't need me to stop the Blue Suns. Just go, Anderson. The galaxy needs you." I just poured my heart out onto the floor here along with some blood.

Anderson sighs. He kneels in front of me and leans me back so that we're face to face. "Splicer, I'm an Alliance marine. We don't leave men behind. So, I'm sorry about this."

"Huh?" I say with a frown.

Anderson punches me square across the jaw and I black out.

* * *

><p><strong>8:11 PM March 14, 2182<strong>

Ow… What the hell? Did Anderson hit me?

I open my eyes and stare up at the ceiling of a very poorly lit room. The only light is from a dull flickering candle. I look around. Oh, it's my apartment. Holy shit, did Anderson carry me all the way back to my apartment? Granted it wasn't too far but I must weigh nearly 300 pounds with my armor and weapons.

I try to sit up but my entire body resists. Everything from pain to exhaustion impedes my movement. I can't believe how tired I am. When was the last time I got some sleep? Like… 35 hours? Not to mention the fact that I was almost constantly fighting and running the entire time.

I look around the room again. It looks like I'm alone.

"Hello? Anyone here?" I call out weakly, my voice hoarse.

No response. I curse and sit up with some considerable difficulty.

I fight past the exhaustion and pain and get to my feet. I take slow, extensively premeditated steps to my room. I stumble inside and go to my desk where the last syringe from the open medkit sits. I take it and inject myself with the serum.

My entire body feels like it's bathed in scalding water as my cells accelerate and my wounds heal. All I'm left with after a few minutes is a dull pain where my wounds were. The serum is total magic. It even works with broken bones somehow.

I _really_ wish I knew how it worked or how it was manufactured. I know Dr. Suchong developed it and it uses ADAM in some way but I have no clue how to make it. I don't even know what's in it, other than ADAM.

I drop the syringe on the table and look around. Alex is gone too. Weird. I stumble over to my bed and sit down on it. The sheets are stained red from Alex's blood but it's dried.

I slowly remove my armor piece by piece until all I'm left with is the black jumpsuit I wear underneath the armor plating. I unzip it down the front and peel it off of me. The suit clings around my previously wounded areas due to dried up blood and I notice someone stuffed bandages into it to staunch the bleeding. Weird how they would just leave me there injured and all they did was put… dish towels over my wounds. That can't be sanitary.

I wiggle off the rest of the suit and throw it onto my bed. If you're curious, yes I don't wear stuff underneath the suit. It's more comfortable that way.

I stare down at myself, my body is covered with dried blood. I really need a shower. I walk into my bathroom to take a well-deserved shower.

That's when I find out that I wasn't totally alone.

Alex is just now getting out of the shower, a towel already wrapped around her. Her eyes shoot up to me in surprise, then down slightly.

Unfortunately I'm butt naked and there's nothing in the immediate area to cover myself with. Instead of thinking of something to do or something clever to say I opt with just standing there, which isn't really the best way of handling a situation like this by the way.

Alex stares for a long, long time. Of course in Awkward Land, time slows down to a crawl so for all I know I could have been no more than five seconds. Finally she blushes and covers her eyes. "Were you uh… gonna use the shower?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Go ahead. I'm all done with it."

Is this going to happen a lot? Why do people always see _me_ naked? I step out of the way and Alex sidles past. I close the door and grab a fresh towel out of the shelf next to the shower.

I step inside the shower and turn on the water which is nice and warm. I stare down at the ground and watch the blood wash off of me. As I shower, and in my semi-comatose state I have trouble wrapping my head around what just happened.

Well that was awkward.

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I exit the shower with a towel around my waist. I quickly style my hair in the mirror before exiting the bathroom. I take a second to look at myself. I have a little stubble growing. I should probably shave but I don't really feel like it. It kind of gives me that… grizzled look. You know, the one every male celebrity sported back in at the turn of the 21st century.

I walk over to my closet and take out some fresh clothes: just a pair of jeans, boxers, and some socks.

After I put on my clothes I walk out into the main room again, where I find people gathered around the room. In the room are Nelyna, Nata, Ram, Saphyria, Vaga, and Alex who is avoiding eye contact.

"Hey guys." I say a little confused. "Where were you guys earlier when I woke up?"

"We were down in the lobby." Vaga says from the back of the room.

Anderson comes out of the kitchen. "I just got back when some Blue Suns showed up at the building. We all went down to the lobby to help out. That was around 7:30. I quickly patched you up and got down there to see if I could help. Though… I see you fixed yourself up."

I look down at myself again. I have several new scars on my body. One where the pipe impaled me, one where I got shot in my leg, and I also have a scar on the side of my head now too, creating gaps in my hair. Luckily the scars on my head are on the side of my head, in the shaved portion, so it looks appropriate. I shrug.

Zero enters the room. "Blue Suns are gone." He smirks at me. "Hey you're awake."

I nod at him. "Zero. Where's Pallin?"

"Lobby, arguing with your landlord." He responds.

"Thanks." I say heading toward the door. "I'm going to go talk to him. I'll see you guys in a bit. Grab some food if you want. I don't have any turian food so sorry guys."

I head down stairs and into the lobby where Pallin and Mr. Dalarian are throwing heated words at each other.

"No! You can take my building! You can take my food! You can take my guards! But you can't fucking take my armor and weapons!" Mr. Dalarian roars at Pallin.

Pallin shakes his head in contempt. "Think about it! I need that armor and your weapon if I'm going to go out there to fight again. You're just sitting on your ass in here!"

I decide to stop the argument. "Hey! Come on guys! Pallin. I'll go out and get you armor and weapons from Hahne-Kedar later. Mr. Dalarian, you don't have to relinquish your weapons and armor but you have to listen to him. He knows what he's doing."

Mr. Dalarian just mumbles some vulgarities under his breath and walks off to his office.

"Son of a bitch. I'd like to give him a piece of my mind." Pallin says and somehow a deep growl rumbles in his throat.

I take a step away from him cautiously. "Calm down Pallin. I'll go to get your stuff tomorrow morning. I need to get some sleep, I haven't slept in over a day."

Pallin nods. "I understand. I could use some rest myself."

"You're welcome to join me in my place if you want but it's a little crowded in there right now." Where's everyone going to sleep in my place anyways?

Pallin raises a hand. "No need. I'll find a place to sleep on my own. Thank you, though."

I nod. "I'll talk to you tomorrow then."

Pallin nods at me as I walk away. "Splicer."

I head back up to my apartment. When I get inside I find a lot of people already asleep. Ramlok is asleep on the floor, with Hirvio lying on his belly. Anderson is dozed off in an armchair. Vaga is using my punching bag as a pillow but is still awake and just staring at the ceiling. Nelyna is on the couch and Saphyria isn't in the room. The only one not asleep in the area is Zero who is sitting at my table, cleaning his gun.

I walk down the hall and look in Nata's bedroom. Nata is asleep on her bed with Saphyria sleeping on the floor for some reason.

I check my room and find Alex changing the sheets of my bed. She's still wearing just the towel. I walk in.

"Hey. What're you doing?" I ask as I approach.

She glances at me. "Changing your sheets for you. I didn't want you to sleep in a bed filled with my blood."

"Where're you sleeping?"

"Couch."

I sigh. "You can go ahead and take my bed. I'm not tired just yet. I think I'm going to eat something first."

Alex looks up at me. "You sure?"

I nod. "Yeah. And go ahead and take one of my shirts or something from my closet. I assume you're still wearing the towel because your clothes are messed up?"

She nods and continues her work. "Alright then. I'll see you in the morning."

I leave the room and walk into the kitchen where I grab a granola bar. Ah granola. The world's solution to world hunger in the palm of your hand. Not really. But I like granola bars. I eat it quickly and take a seat on the couch next to Nelyna.

Somehow I don't feel like sleeping… Maybe this is a good time to socialize?

I walk around the couch and sit next to Vaga, crisscross-applesauce.

He looks over at me briefly before looking back up at the ceiling. "What's up?"

I shrug. "I just felt like talking a little. We don't really know each other."

He shrugs. "What's there to know about me? You got the main stuff: Fornax, Shadow Broker… That's about it."

"Yeah…" I sigh, trying to think of a subject of interest. "Well… Well, you know how to snipe and pilot right?"

He nods. "Yeah… so?"

"Well where'd you learn how to do that?" I'm actually really curious, from what I've seen he's a damn good sniper.

He smirks. "All turians have to go through boot camp starting on their 15 birthday. Most serve until they're 30. I stayed until I was 25. I'm 28 now. I was in the 5th Legion's Sniper Squad. There were 12 of us total, best in the Hierarchy's military. A few of us even got commendations from the Primarch. Not me though." He pauses to laugh. "It took a lot of bribes to get out of the service before my term was over."

I frown at him. "You bribed people to get out of the military."

"You got it." He says winking at me. "I learned how to be a pilot from private lessons."

I sigh. "That's… fascinating?"

"Isn't it?" He says with a smile.

"You sure are conceited." Zero says from the table without looking up from his partially disassembled shotgun.

Vaga shrugs. "I know."

"Were you in the military, Zero?" I ask him.

He stands with his reassembled shotgun in his hands. "I need to go on watch. Come along, I'll tell you as we go."

I nod and hop to my feet and follow him out the door.

After a few moments of silent walking I look at him. "So… Military?"

He nods. "Yes, I was."

I wait… when he doesn't continue. "… And?"

"And what?" He asks glancing at me. "I was in the military. End of story."

"Yeah but you have to have a few stories." I'm getting information out of him whether I have to torture him for it or not. "Come on. Tell me more."

He sighs. "Fine. Uh… Well… I'm a biotic, and turian biotics are rare. Our combat style sometimes conflicts with other common soldiers styles so we're often not trusted by others."

I laugh. "Like you need another reason."

He shakes his head, but smirks at the poke. "True. Anyways, biotics are often assigned to special teams called Cabals. I was part of the 3rd Cabal in the 33rd Legion."

"What rank were you?" I ask as we head down another floor.

"I was 4th in command of my unit. Master Sergeant 1st class. Though my unit Commander said I had a knack for leadership." He says. After a second of silence he stops in his tracks and looks down at the ground.

I stop and turn back at him when he stops. "Something wrong, Zero?"

He looks up at me for a second. "Uh… Sort of, just uh… Uh… No. Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Just… worried about the Blue Suns."

I nod understandingly. "I hear you."

He nods. "Thanks. Looks like the building's clear. We need to head back to your place anyways. Your landlord called lights out about an hour ago."

I nod and follow him back to my apartment silently. After we get back he retakes a seat at the table and places his shotgun in front of him. I stretch and take a seat on the couch next to Nelyna.

I yawn loudly and rest my head in my hand as I lean against the armrest. Sleep quickly overtakes me.

* * *

><p><strong>9:09 AM March 15, 2182<strong>

I slowly open my eyes. Wow, that was the best sleep I've gotten in years. I woke up by myself too. Not because of a nightmare or a noise or something.

Ew, what's that? My leg feels wet. I look down at my leg.

Nelyna is lying across the couch, using my thigh as a pillow. And at some point last night she must've started drooling… gross.

I gently cradle her head in my hand and ease her down on the couch. I stand and stretch. I look around the room. Everybody is in their old spot, even Zero who looks like he passed out late last night.

Ugh, my leg feels gross. I'm going to get my armor back on. Maybe I'll go out and get Pallin's armor while everyone is still asleep. I go into my bedroom, moving quietly so as not to wake anyone up.

Alex is still asleep. Aw how cute. She's wearing my Bazooka bubblegum shirt. That thing was expensive too. I bought it about a week ago from that antiques dealer that I sold my Rapture guns to.

I tiptoe over to my closet and grab my armor case. I get a new jumpsuit because my other one is messed up. I take my stuff into the bathroom.

Better lock the door…

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I attach the last armor plate, my chest plate, to my… well, chest. I limber up a little and wiggle so my armor sits properly.

I unlock the door and sneak back into my bedroom. I try to be stealthy but my boots keep clanging loudly against the metal floor.

I curse quietly after each footstep. I finally opt with rushing out of the room and back into the main room.

I walk out of my apartment and down to the lobby. The place is empty except for Trevor the night watchman. I nod at him as I pass. He nods back. Trevor always was a man of few words. Kind of creepy that fellow.

As I pass by Mr. Dalarian's office I hear audible mumbing from his office.

I frown and peek inside.

Mr. Dalarian is sitting at his desk facing away from the door, polishing his rifle and… talking to himself.

He growls to himself. "They all said I was mad. Mad! Mad for spending my life savings and retirement fund on all the counter measures in the building! Who's laughing now, huh? Who's laughing? Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"

I shiver and walk out into the lobby. I open my omni-tool and shut off the barrier protecting the entrance. I step out onto the street and reactivate it behind me with my omni-tool.

I take a deep breath of smoky air. I set out at a brisk pace toward the Hahne-Kedar store.

I round a corner and spot a small squad of Blue Suns marching down the street ahead of me. I slide behind a trashcan and peek out from behind it. Looks like they've taken control of this part of the Citadel. I guess they're just keeping order now.

One holds his omni-tool up into the air and places his hand on his ear. "Attention!" He yells, his voice projecting loudly. _"Attention! The Citadel Wards are now under the control of the Blue Suns! Stay where you are! If anyone who is not wearing Blue Suns armor is found on the street they will be shot immediately!"_

Shit… They have control of the Wards? Oh wait. Just the Wards? Not the Presidium? Hopefully they haven't gotten onto the Citadel Tower yet. If they do that's the end of the Citadel.

Damn, I don't want to bring attention to this part of the Wards. If I get spotted and they call for backup or something this place will flood with Suns. I'll go Adam Jensen here. I turn around the trashcan and quickly slide into cover behind a low wall of a cafe closer to the group. I vault over the low wall and enter the adjacent building.

After I get inside I use the maintenance access walkways up above to move from building to building unnoticed. The only worry that I have with this is the noise my boots make on the ground… hm… that gives me an idea for a new armor upgrade.

I reach a dead end. Dammit! The Market District should be just behind this wall! If only there was… a ventilation shaft.

I walk over to the small ventilation shaft I noticed just now. I pull the grate off of it and look inside. It's pitch black in there, but I can use my omni-tool light to illuminate it. Let's just hope that this comes out the other side and I don't get sucked into a fan or fall into a protein vat or something.

I pull myself into the vent and worm my way into it. Crap. This was a bad idea. It's a tight fit… stupid bulky armor. I start wiggling my way forward. My arms are pressed against my sides so I can't use my omni-tool to light my way. I wiggle my way forward but I stop and I can no longer move.

Yeah… I'm stuck. Like really stuck.

Well… great. I sigh and look around. Now what? I suppose I can break the vent. I start trying to push the vent apart with my arms and by flexing my back and chest. I hear the vent creak but it holds together. Let's see. Well… I know that metal expands when heat is applied so… This isn't going to end well.

I activate Incinerate and start blasting the wall of the vent with flame.

Suddenly it collapse from underneath and I fall into a bar. The ceiling is at least ten feet above the ground and I hit the ground with an extremely loud crash.

I groan and I pick myself up off of the ground. Well that could have gone smoother. Ew I'm covered in dust.

I brush myself off and tousle my hair and head toward the exit. Great, it's locked. I sigh and start hacking the door with my omni-tool. Okay… Almost got it… and there we go. The door opens and a pair of Blue Suns on the other side turn to look at me.

"Hi ya. What's up?" I say nervously and with a smile.

The Blue Suns raise their weapons at me and I respond by Aero Dashing to them. At the end of the Dash I grab their faces and throw them onto the ground as hard as I can. Whoops. Killed them.

I shrug. I was going to do that anyways. I check where I am on my omni-tool. Oh! It's just over here. I jog over to the Hahne-Kedar Store. I enter and look around, rubbing my hands together.

Okay… Turian armor, turian armor…

I vault over the counter and into the storage room. The walls are lined with armor cases all neatly organized. I go to the turian section. Let's see… this looks good. I take a black case labeled Heavy/ Hahne-Kedar/ Janissary IX.

I open the case. Aw badass! This is cool. I'm sure Pallin will approve.

I close the case and carry it out of the store. Damn this is heavy! Geez, I wonder what my armor classifies as, light, medium, or heavy, because my armor isn't nearly this heavy in its case. Must just be because it's for turians.

I lug the case back down the street where the squad was patrolling before, which is now again deserted. I carry it down to my building.

A bunch of Blue Suns are gathered around the entrance. One is trying to hack the shields.

Shit. I drop the case and hide behind a low lying wall. I take out my assault rifle and aim it carefully. I take aim at the hacker and fire. His head is replaced by a jumbled mess and the other four mercs stumble away in shock.

I use Telekinesis and fling the armor case at one of the mercs.

The case collides with his head, shattering his fringe and killing him instantly.

I fire a controlled burst at another one until he dies. The last merc whirls around and around, looking for me.

I use Telekinesis and pull his gun from his hands. He yelps in surprise and faces me as I approach with my assault rifle raised.

"On your knees." He shouts at me.

The fuck? "No! You get on your knees. You're not really in a position to make demands."

He rolls his eyes and gets on his knees and places his hands on the back of his head. I put my assault rifle away and draw my pistol keeping it on him.

I walk over to the intercom. "Mr. Dalarian it's me. Open the door."

"_Pass code?"_

"Do we really got to do this every time?"

"_Yes."_

I sigh… "Killorax the Barbarian burns his old loincloths."

The shield shuts down and I grab the armor case. I motion the merc forward. He enters the building with me close behind.

Once inside all guns point at him. Mr. Dalarian approaches followed by Pallin.

"Splicer! You captured a merc! Excellent work!" Pallin says in excitement.

"And," I say handing him the armor case. "I got your armor too."

He takes it and examines the contents. "This is superb, just what I need. Dalarian, take the prisoner to a secure location and search him."

Mr. Dalarian doesn't protest, on the contrary he looks quite happy. He grabs the merc and shoves him down the hallway.

I stretch and approach Pallin. "Have you been able to come into contact with any C-Sec in the area?"

He looks up from the armor case. "Yes. There's a small C-Sec station here on the Zakera Ward in the Market District. All officers inside are present and accounted for. They've locked themselves in the docking bay there and are pinned down by Blue Suns. I sent word that I would assist them."

I nod. "Good. You're going to need some guns too. I got a few extras down at my place. I'll let you take your pick."

He perks up. "You are really full of surprises, Splicer."

I shrug. "You don't know the half of it. But for now let's head up to my apartment."

Pallin closes the armor case and follows me up to my apartment. Everybody is awake now. Nelyna stands quickly as we enter the room. "There you are! I was worried about you when I woke up and you weren't there!"

I frown. "Okay calm down. I just went out to get Pallin some armor." I turn to Pallin. "Let's get you some guns."

He nods and I lead him into my bedroom. Nata and Vaga follow us into my room.

Nata folds her arms in front of her chest. "You keep guns here? Where?"

I gesture at a trophy that sits on a shelf above my desk.

Vaga leans closer and examines it. "Little Miss Citadel Darling First Runner Up."

I shrug. "That's me."

I pull the trophy and the wall above it opens up to reveal my secret stash of guns, ADAM and EVE.

Vaga whistles. "Damn. I wish I knew this was here."

"Take your pick Pallin. I got a whole variety here." I say stretching.

Pallin takes an EVE hypo out. "What're these?"

I snatch it out of his hand. Okay think of a lie and quick! "Uh… I have glaucoma. These help with that."

"What's glaucoma?" He asks confused.

I shrug. "It's an extremely painful… parasite. If I don't take this medicine I'll… explode."

Pallin shudders. I can't believe he bought that. Pallin takes an assault rifle and a pistol out of my selection and he places them down on the desk. "Thanks. I'm going to change into my armor. May I use your bathroom?"

I nod. "Go ahead."

He takes his armor into my bathroom. I close my stash. Vaga leaves the room as well, heading into the main room.

Nata puts her hands on her hips. "When was that installed?"

"I had that put in while you guys were held captive by Cerberus. Ram knew about it." I say as I start taking EVE hypos out of the secret wall.

"Why didn't he tell me?" She shouts angrily.

I shrug. "Because I told him that if he told you I would punch him."

Nata shakes her head. "Weaksauce…"

He, he… I taught her that word… I load the hypos into my pauldron the extra weight feels comforting as I make sure they're connected.

Pallin comes back out of the bathroom fully armored save for his helmet. Damn that was fast.

He walks over to the desk and arms himself. "Are you ready to go back out there, Splicer? I already spoke to Zero and that other turian, Vaga? They've volunteered to come too. We're going to go down to the docking bay at the C-Sec station in the Market District. Hopefully we can take back this part of the Citadel at least."

I nod. "I'm ready when you are Pallin."

Suddenly Pallin's omni-tool lights up and it starts beeping. "Hm? Who's this?"

Pallin receives the call and sets it to speaker phone. "This is Executor Pallin, identify yourself."

A garbled static clouded voice comes in over the other side. _"Executor. It's me, Garrus."_

Oh shit! Garrus! I totally forgot about him! He's okay! Wow, I'm happy about that, that's weird.

Pallin takes on a surprised expression. "Detective Vakarian? You made it out of the Presidium alive? How are you contacting me? I thought the Blue Suns knocked out communications."

"_Yeah they did. But they only knocked down Citadel FTL Comm units. They didn't have the brains to take down the short-range infolink systems that come standard in every omni-tool." Garrus replies._

Short-range info what's? I open my omni-tool. Infolink. Is that what that's for?

Pallin gives me an odd look. Stupid inner monologue. "Detective. What's the situation on the Citadel?"

"_The place is being totally besieged by Blue Suns right now. I think their main objective is to capture the Council and get them to relinquish control of the Citadel over to them. But luckily a few Spectres happened to be visiting the Council and have locked down the Presidium Tower. The Presidium station has been captured. I held them off for a while but there were too many of them and I had to retreat. They have hundreds of hostages now, maybe thousands."_

Pallin slams his fist onto my desk. "Damn. Detective can you meet up with us? We're on the Zakera Ward. Are you still on the Presidium?"

"_Negative. The Presidium was too hot, I had to get out of there. I've been tracking Splicer using the VI link from his helmet to his armor. I'm on the Zakera Ward right now but I'm having trouble pinpointing your signal. Where are you?"_

Pallin starts pacing around the room. "We're in Splicer's apartment building. It's heavily fortified and safe from the Blue Suns. I'm sending the coordinates now. I'll have the watchmen let you in. I'm impressed with your initiative Detective. Get here safely and we'll decide a plan of action."

"_Roger that. I have the coordinates. I'll be there in a little while. This place is crawling with Blue Suns and I'm having trouble staying hidden."_

I jump into the conversation. "There are maintenance access walkways that connect most of the shops and buildings. You can use those to sneak past them."

A long pause. _"Alright. I'll try that. Garrus out."_

I turn to Pallin. "So we're going to revise our plan now?"

Pallin shakes his head. "No the plan is still to regroup with C-Sec officers at the Zakera station. Hopefully they'll be willing to help take back the Presidium."

I raise my eyebrows. "Bold plan Pallin. I like it."


	15. Chapter 15 C OIW! Part 4: CSec

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Eh... I'm unsatisfied. Both with this chapter and the ME3 end.**

**This chapter first though. It could have been better. It could have been way better. But... this is what it is. Sorry.**

**Now for the ME3 end. I'm not going to spoil anything, but I'm glad Bioware is going to do something about it, at least.**

**Anyway, enough of me complaining. Thanks for reading.**

**Mockingbird79**

* * *

><p>"<strong>Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self-interest."<strong>

**~Napoleon Bonaparte I~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 15: Crisis! On Infinite Wards! – Part 4<strong>

**C-Sec**

**11:19 AM March 15, 2182**

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><p>A bullet ricochets off of my chest plate and grazes my cheek. Ah! Dammit!<p>

I duck down behind my cover again. Damn, I'm gonna have a lot of new scars after this is all over. Thank goodness my plasmids don't scar… imagine what I'd look like. If only I had my fucking helmet! Damn Garrus!

Pallin rolls across the hall into cover next to me. "Splicer! There's too many of them here! We have to fall back!"

"No dammit!" I yell back at him. "If we fall back into the hanger we'll put the C-Sec in danger! There's only… like thirty mercs left!"

Pallin ducks as a flurry of bullets strike our cover. I peek over at the merc who is using a mounted mini-gun turret and is firing down the hall at the various bits of cover that Zero, Garrus, Pallin and I are using.

Damn! Pallin's right! There're too many of them! It seemed like such a simple plan in theory back at the apartment building too, but things just had to go to shit…

**10:36 AM March 15, 2182**

I turn my head to the entrance of my room as a new occupant enters it.

Garrus takes a quick look around the room. His eyes linger on me for a moment before Pallin approaches him.

"Detective Vakarian," Pallin says shaking Garrus's hand. "I'm glad to see you are alright."

Garrus nods. "The feeling is mutual, sir."

Zero steps forward. "Good to see you, Garrus."

Garrus looks over at him. "Zero? It's good to see you! What are you doing here?"

Zero gestures at me with his shotgun. "I escaped the station with Splicer and Alex."

"Yeah I saw her in the living room with a few asari and a gigantic krogan. Quite a group of friends you have here, Splicer." Garrus responds turning to me.

You won't be talking in about a year or so Garrus! Well to be fair the Normandy crew isn't THAT weird. In truth they're pretty normal, sort of. Come to think of it my friends are all pretty weird…

I bring myself back to reality. It looks like they're formulating a plan.

Pallin looks at each of us as he explains the plan. "… We'll head down to the Zakera C-Sec station down in the Market District. The officers there are trapped in a docking hanger. When we get them out, we'll bring them back here and we'll take the fight to the Blue Suns on the Presidium. With the help of the Spectres protecting the Council-"

I butt in as a sudden realization troubles me. "Hey. Why is the Council still on the Citadel? In the event of an emergency, aren't they evacuated to the Destiny's Ascension?"

Pallin nods. "That is correct. But the sudden attack by the Blue Suns who were already within the Citadel forced the Council to close the Wards before getting evacuated to the Destiny's Ascension. For the time being the military is reluctant to move in to retake the Citadel, because the Blue Suns have many hostages."

Garrus turns to look at me. "Actually to my understanding, the Council was evacuated except for Councilor Tevos."

Damn! I don't know which one that is! Why were they unnamed in the game? "Which one is that?"

"The asari councilor."

Pallin frowns and looks at Garrus. "Why would she stay behind?"

Garrus shrugs.

"Not many people know this, but she's actually a former Spectre." Zero says, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"You don't say…" Garrus says stroking his chin.

I turn to Garrus as a thought comes to mind. "Garrus, how many Spectres are protecting the Tower. Other than Tevos."

He ponders for a moment. "Well… I believe three. One is a turian named Nihlus…"

Ah Nihlus: A plot device used to indicate the dangerous circumstances faced by the main character at the start of the narrative without having to kill any of the vital main characters. His destiny was doomed from the start.

"… and a salarian Spectre named Partif Pyn. He's a diplomatic Spectre so I don't know how useful he'll be."

Partif Pyn, Partif Pyn… It's fun to say.

"… and I think there's an asari Spectre named Tela Vasir. I think she's relatively new."

Hey… I think she's the Spectre that's loyal to the Shadow Broker in Lair of the Shadow Broker in ME2… Hopefully she dies here so that we don't need to fight her later. She's a bitch to fight… kind of hot though.

"There's only three people protecting the Tower against hordes of Blue Suns?" Zero exclaims incredulously. "How's that possible?"

"Spectres." Is Pallin's only response.

I smile. "Guys we better get going to the C-Sec station."

Pallin nods. "Right. Let's move out!"

We exit my room and head out into the main room where all my friends sit around with each other. I hang behind while the rest of the group exits my apartment.

"Hey guys." I say, getting their attention. "We're heading out to get the C-Sec officers. It'll be a while before I come back, if I do at all. So I just wanted to say, goodbye, and be safe."

I turn to leave quickly.

I find the rest of my group waiting for me at the stairs. I catch up to them and we start heading towards the lobby.

As we descend I notice Garrus hanging back. I slow down and walk next to him. He eyes me suspiciously but overall ignores me.

"Hey, Garrus." I say as we descend.

He glances at me. "Splicer."

I'll just cut to the chase. "You took my helmet, right?"

He looks at me. "Yeah. And I found the video feed. Once I can access it I'll be able to see what's on it. And if you're wondering: No, I don't have it with me."

"But didn't you track us here with it?" I ask suspiciously.

"Yeah." He responds, smiling. "But once I found out where you were I hid it,"

I sigh. "So I guess if I survive this ordeal then you'll put me in jail for life then?"

He shrugs. "Well, given the proper amount of evidence, then… yeah life at the most. But more likely 50 to 60 years."

I sigh again. "Thanks Garrus."

Garrus speeds up and distances himself from me. I think I see Zero look up at him as we descend but I think it might've been my imagination.

Well that sucks… I can't think about that now, there's more pressing matters at hand.

Just as we're about to leave, one of the guards runs up to us.

"Executor Pallin!"

Pallin turns. "What is it?"

"Mr. Dalarian wants to see you." He says pointing to Dalarian's office. "All of you. He said that he got the merc to talk."

Pallin looks at us. He nods and the guard leads us into Mr. Dalarian's office, where he is found beating the merc.

Pallin growls and stops the beating, catching a blow thrown by Mr. Dalarian. "Haephis that's enough!"

Mr. Dalarian ignores the hostility in Pallin's voice. He says, panting. "He's ready to talk now. Ask your questions."

Pallin turns to the batarian merc. "What's your name."

The batarian spits a mouthful of blood onto the floor. "Thak' Pol."

"Can I call you Thak?"

"No."

"Alright, Thak." Pallin says taking a seat across from him. "Why are the Blue Suns attacking the Citadel?"

Thak spits more blood onto the floor. "The Batarian Hegemony gave us billions to supply us. That doesn't include payment for the job."

"What job?"

Thak looks up at Pallin through swollen eyes. "Isn't that obvious? The Hegemony gave us billions to buy weapons, hire more troops, and to bribe officials so that we could take over the Citadel in their name."

I raise my eyebrows in shock. Damn. I look over at Zero who looks at me, with an equally shocked expression written on his face.

Pallin frowns. "Why does the Hegemony want the Citadel?"

"The plan was to hold the Citadel and the Council hostage. We would force the turian, asari, salarian, volus, elcor, hanar, krogan and human governments to pay a select ransom sum for each hostage present according to their species. After payment is transacted. We would force them to turn over control of the Citadel to the Hegemony and show the galaxy that the batarians and the Blue Suns are force to be reckoned with. Even if the plan fails, the Blue Suns gain a lot of cred in the Terminus Systems for this and the Hegemony can deny involvement."

Pallin looks over in horror at us. "How long has this been planned?"

"The Hegemony has been planning this for decades. The only thing they didn't have was man power. They offered the job to us on multiple occasions but we always declined. However, after the Blue Suns were outlawed from Citadel Space, we took the job."

Oh my God… this is my fault… Why am I so stupid? Dammit! There's nothing I can do to change this now, except stop their plan from succeeding. I swear, I have to stop doing stuff. After this is all over, I'm going on a hiatus until Shepard arrives.

Pallin shakes his head in disbelief. "We have to stop their plan from succeeding. We're going now. Dalarian, keep an eye on Thak. Don't kill him."

We leave the office then the building. We're all silent as we walk down the street toward the Market District. If we fail… then everything will change and then I can kiss Mass Effect 1 goodbye. The stakes have gotten too fucking high! This is why I don't play poker. Though this has nothing to do with that.

We make our way into the abandoned C-Sec station and down the hall to the private C-Sec docking hub. Once Pallin opens the door to the other side voices flow in.

"… jamming again! They must have an experienced hacker or something on the other side because my omni-tool keeps getting scrambled."

"Well try again!"

"Alright hang on…" and after a long pause, "Nope there it goes again. See, sir?"

"Damn! … Well… Nothing we can do then… They'll starve to death in there soon enough. Lock the entrance soldier, we'll hold out here."

"Yes, sir."

Pallin peeks out of the room into the hub. He looks back at us and motions us to follow him.

We crouch down low, our weapons at the ready, and move single file into the docking hub.

I see that one door is open and it leads into a long hallway with a few piles of cargo crates dotted in the hall. A soldier is walking towards us from the other end.

Pallin points at Garrus then at the soldier and drags his thumb across his neck.

Garrus draws his sniper rifle and takes aim at the soldier walking down the corridor. He fires and the soldier's helmet gets split apart from the powerful round. Damn, what sniper is that?

The commander of the soldier at the end of the hall whirls around and faces us. He starts firing his pistol at us and dives behind a crate.

Pallin signals us forward and we charge down the hall. Zero leads the charge his biotics flaring into a bright blue aura as he runs. The commander rises out of cover just as Zero reaches him

He leaps over the pile of crates and body slams the Blue Suns commander. Because the crates block my view, all I get to see is Zero raise his brightly glowing arm above his head and bring it down on the concealed commander's head. With a flash of bright light and a loud clang, a spray of bluish turian blood sprays out from behind the crates and paints the Zero's face and the walls blue.

Zero wipes his face off with his hand and stands. "The uh… area's clear."

I look at Garrus with a smile on my face. Garrus stares at Zero with a look of respect.

Pallin walks by and pats Zero on the shoulder. Zero and Garrus follow and I bring up the read.

I look at the merc commander's corpse as I pass. Damn! Whoa… The merc's head is gone with blood spraying outward from where it used to be. There is also a large dent right in the epicenter of the blood splatter. Holy crap how hard did Zero hit him? I don't want to get in a fist fight with him…

"On the Dragon's Breath soldier!" I hear a batarian voice roar from somewhere behind me.

The hell?

Suddenly a heavy torrent of gunfire starts hitting my shields from behind, tearing through them in less than a second. I instinctively dive behind a pile of crates.

Zero, Pallin, and Garrus all drop behind cover as well as bullets start hitting them as well.

I peek over my cover and look at the two columns of mercs marching towards us on either sides of the hall. I spot another merc in the middle of the group of mercs at the entrance to the hall firing at us using a mounted machine gun.

I activate Incinerate and hit a spot in between both columns of mercs lighting a few on both sides ablaze. The mercs scramble to find cover as we return fire.

Thankfully the mounted machine gun overheated and ceased firing. I stand and start firing at some mercs with my assault rifle. It seems like the number of mercs is endless as I continue to pick them off one by one.

Suddenly my shield gets hit by an Overload and it fails. A bullet ricochets off of my chest plate and gazes my cheek. Ah! Dammit!

I duck down behind my cover again. Damn, I'm gonna have a lot of new scars after this is all over. If only I had my fucking helmet! Damn Garrus!

Pallin rolls across the hall into cover next to me. "Splicer! There's too many of them here! We have to fall back!"

"No dammit!" I yell back at him. "If we fall back into the hanger we'll put the C-Sec officers in danger! There's only… like thirty mercs left!"

Pallin ducks as a flurry of bullets strike our cover. I peek over at the merc using a mounted turret who is firing down the hall at the various bits of cover that Zero, Garrus, Pallin and I are using.

Damn! Pallin's right! There're too many of them! It seemed like such a simple plan in theory back at the apartment building too, but things just had to go to shit…

I turn to Pallin. "Pallin! Fall back! I'll hold them off!"

Pallin looks reluctant but he nods. I pop out of cover once the turret fire ceases and start blasting the mercs with Electro Bolts. I fire bursts from my assault rifle at the mercs whose shields overloaded from the blasts of electricity.

I duck down again when the turret starts shooting again. Dammit! I holster my rifle and draw my shotgun. I look back at the other end of the hall and I see Pallin banging on the door to the hanger. Shit, I got to push the Blue Suns back!

I look over my cover. That damn turret! If only I could… Well nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose.

I roll out of my cover and slowly advance on the mercs. I keep my shotgun aimed at my targets, with my left hand open and ready.

Every time a merc pops out of cover to shoot me I hit him or her with an Electro Bolt then follow up with a blast from my shotgun in a lethal one-two punch, advancing fairly quickly. Soon however, the turret starts shooting at me again.

There's my cue!

I throw my shotgun to the side and activate Telekinesis. I use it to pull the turret towards me.

The turret is connected with a base but I strengthen the pull and it gets ripped off of its base and it flies into my hands. I stagger greatly from the weight and the velocity of the gun but I managed to stay standing.

While the Blue Suns, particularly the turret operator, stand stunned by my awesomeness, I get a good hold of the top of the turret with my left hand and hold the trigger in my right.

I take a quick second to get a good look at my new weapon. Shit this thing is scary. The simplest way of describing its appearance is that it looks kind of like two mini-guns stuck together. On the side of the gun are the Blue Suns emblem and the words Dragon's Breath IV. I spot a button on the side marked with the letters _EXP_. I wonder what this does. I press it the button and a display lights up, reading the words: _Explosive Rounds Loaded._

I unconsciously adopt a sinister expression and pull the trigger. The barrels take a second to spin then start firing a bullet storm of absolute carnage. The hallway gets ravaged by the explosive rounds; the crates of cargo the mercs were using as cover are torn to pieces and thrown about the hallway along with the people hiding behind them. The mercs start fleeing in terror from the carnage, dropping their guns and making mad dashes for the exit.

Muahahahahaha! I fire in short bursts to prevent the gun from overheating, tearing fleeing mercs and the hall to bits as I advance.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, pulling me out of my battle rage. I glance over my shoulder at Zero.

"Come on Splicer! Let's go!" He yells over the roar of my turret.

I nod and we run back toward the door at the other end of the hall, which is now open.

We run through it and it closes and locks behind us.

Zero starts laughing and grabs my shoulders and shakes me excitedly. "That was the baddest shit I've ever seen! What the fuck man?"

Pallin walks up to me… with a smile on his face? "Good work, Splicer. I'm impressed."

That's saying a lot. I glance over at Garrus, who's checking around the hanger. I'll bet he thought that was awesome.

Zero nods at the turret in my hands. "So you gonna keep that?"

I shrug. "I don't know… I mean… it's really, really heavy but… it's a fucking turret!"

Zero smirks and shakes his head. "Put it down for now. We need to see if everyone is alright."

I nod reluctantly and put my turret down even more reluctantly. I then go about walking around the huge hanger. The only people in here are C-Sec. Some are officers, some are desk workers, but all are C-Sec.

Oh look, there's Bailey. I never liked talking to him in ME2 so I'll just leave him to Pallin. I don't know why… he just annoyed me…

I walk over to a small group of human and asari people huddled together.

I kneel next to them. Better put on a warm tone, "Hey. Are you guys alright?"

No one speaks they all just huddle closer to the wall, quivering slightly. One bold asari speaks out. "W-w-we're fine. Just scared."

I smile my most reassuring smile. "Everything will be fine. We're going to get you out of here."

I glance over to the next group of people.

"Excuse me." I say as I walk over to them. I crouch down next to this group. "Are you guys okay?"

One woman shakes her head. "No. I-I got shot yesterday and we don't have any medi-gel."

Oh shit! "Show it to me."

The woman lifts up her shirt and reveals the bullet wound in her stomach. There's lots of blood around it and on the ground. It's a miracle she's survived up until this point.

I run a hand through my hair. "Damn. Pallin!"

Pallin looks over at me from across the hanger. I shout at him. "We got wounded here! I don't have medi-gel!"

I really got to start carrying that stuff with me. Not that I need it though. Actually come to think of it, my Fast Healing tonic has been working poorly. I'll have to run some tests once everything has calmed down.

Pallin sprints across the room and halts next to the woman. He takes a vial of medi-gel from his belt and injects it around the wound. The woman grimaces but instantly relaxes as the medi-gel's anesthetic properties take effect.

Pallin drops the vial on the ground and helps her to her feet. He sighs. "Splicer. There are too many people here. We can't take them all back to your apartment building. I hate to say this but Dalarian was right, if we let too many people in, it'll get overloaded."

I sigh. "I see your point Pallin… Let me think…"

Hm… Think Rob! Think! Alright. We can't take all these people with us. We need the C-Sec officers' help to take back the Presidium. But the officers here are useless until they've had some rest, eaten something, and resupplied. We also can't leave the citizens here alone…

"That pretty much sums up our problem." Pallin says shaking his head in dismay.

Damn my inner monologue! I would cry it to the sky if only people wouldn't think I'm crazy! "Pallin. I have a… well it's not really a plan but it's a sequence of events that will be premeditated and decided upon."

"So… a plan?"

I shake my head. "Not exactly because it isn't very good and I can't predict the outcome well. I'll stay here and protect the desk workers, while you take the officers back to my apartment building and get them fed, rested, and resupplied. Once that's over and done with, we'll use my ship which I believe is docked in the other hanger to fly over to the Presidium tower. We'll pull Tevos and the Spectres out of there then we'll let the military roll in and… I don't know… space the mercs out or something."

"That'll kill all the hostages!"

… "Damn… Okay new crappy plan. I'll stay here and protect the desk workers, while you take the officers to my place to get them fed, rested, and resupplied. Once that's done… Uh… Then come back here and we'll make a new plan."

Pallin rolls his eyes. "That's an awful plan…"

Dammit! "Then you come up with a plan, Pallin!"

Pallin rests his chin in his hand and stares at the floor. "I think… we… should… Get Garrus to come up with a plan. Sound good?"

Alright! Now that's a plan! I nod enthusiastically and Pallin turns around. "Garrus! Get over here!"

Garrus looks up from whatever he was doing and jogs over to us. "Yes, Executor?"

"We need a plan of action. Suggestions?" Pallin says, looking a little relieved to not have to come up with a plan himself.

Garrus clearly ponders the thought. It's finally time to see the amazing Garrus plan our next move. According to the Illusive Man's dossier, Garrus's tactical wisdom is unparalleled… let's see him at work…

Garrus looks up at each one of us, lingering on me longest, he then looks around the room for a moment. Finally he nods. "Alright. I got a plan."

Pallin leans in excitedly. "Alright let's hear it."

Zero nudges in past me. I wave Garrus on.

"Alright." Garrus starts. "Here's what we're going to do…"

**Later…**

"I hate you Garrus!" I say as Garrus pushes me out of the door to the hanger.

Garrus ignores me. "Just get the food, water, armor and weapons."

"I'm doing all of the work!" I yell at him. "How am I going to bring enough food, water, armor and weapons for almost a hundred people back here?"

"Not true. Zero will be going out to find medical supplies and I'll go out to do some reconnaissance." Garrus says with a shrug. "I trust in your intuition. Sort of. You'll get it back here. Remember, canned goods."

I glare at him and walk away, hefting my turret along. Alright… where to start?

**Many, Many, Many Hours of Toil, Combat, and Labor Later…**

That outta do it. I was wandering around the Zakera Ward for hours, literally doing absolutely nothing. That is until I wandered into the Zakera Ward Field HQ for the Blue Suns by accident… It was confusing and catastrophic.

Shouting, gunshots, and dying noises came from the Blue Suns. Roars of rage, roars of gunfire from my turret, and maniacal laughter came from me as I gunned down merc after merc. Even a few gunships fell to my guns. Thanks to the element of surprise, I had cleared out the place in a few minutes.

I decided to take a look around. I found, canned food for both Levo and Dextro acids, water, guns, and Blue Suns armor. That's when I came up with a devious scheme to destroy the Blue Suns… from the inside.

I start laughing maniacally, slow and quiet chuckling at first that grew to side splitting Joker laughter, as I load the last cargo crate of armor into the Blue Suns cargo mini ship.

I kick the hover cart away and hop into the cockpit of the cargo ship. "Alright here we go. SNAKE: Take us back to Zakera C-Sec Hanger 008 please."

"_Affirmative. Would you like me to play your 'Driving Mix'?"_

"Uh, no. Play my Running Mix. Oh and inform me when we're in range for my… infolink to work between me and Executor Pallin."

"_Affirmative."_

As the ship takes off, music specifically chosen to get my blood pumping starts playing from my omni-tool. I relax as we approach the C-Sec Station and sing along to those "Oldie" songs.

After a short time, SNAKE chimes in. _"Excuse me sir, but we are now in range of Executor Pallin's infolink."_

I sit up. "Thanks SNAKE."

I open my omni-tool and go to infolink. I select Pallin from my contacts.

After a few seconds Pallin's voice comes through on my omni-tool. _"Splicer? What's going on? Are you alright?"_

I frown. "I'm fine, why?"

"_You've been gone for a long time. Have you gotten the supplies?"_

I smile maliciously. "Yeah, I got everything we need, including a plan of attack…"

"_Really?"_ Pallin says intrigued. _"Tell me when you arrive. I'm eager to hear it."_

I check our progress. "Actually, I'm about at the station now. I'm going to land and then I'll come down to the hanger. Get ready with some guys to unload the ship, I'll be there soon."

"_Roger that. We'll wait here for you."_

The ship slows to a halt and then slowly lands in an unoccupied hanger of the station.

Alright guess this is as close as we're going to get. I hop out of the ship and walk down the hall and into the Hanger hub. I take an immediate left and walk down the wrecked hall to Hanger 008.

I bang on the door. "Garrus, Pallin, someone! It's Splicer."

The door opens and Pallin leads a small team of officers out followed by Zero and Garrus.

After the officers unload the cargo from the ship and carry it back to the hanger with much difficulty, the officers get to work on eating and drinking while I reconvene with Pallin and Garrus.

I walk up to Pallin, Garrus, Zero, and Bailey who are all sitting around a large crate, using smaller crates as chairs, eating some of the food I brought.

I pull up a seat. "Hey guys."

Bailey nods at me and extends a hand across the makeshift table. "Splicer. Officer Bailey. I wanted to thank you for helping my people out here. We wouldn't have made it without your sacrifice."

Sacrifice. Odd choice of words. "You make it sound a little more intense than it was. I just went out and got supplies is all. But I appreciate the… appreciation."

Pallin speaks up. "So, Splicer, you mentioned a plan of attack against the Blue Suns? On the Presidium I assume?"

I nod. And I can't help but smile maliciously. I am so devious. "I don't know if you've noticed but all the armor and weapons I brought back are Blue Suns."

The group look over their shoulders at the several cargo containers of weapons and armor.

Pallin slowly shakes his head in disappointment. "What are we supposed to do with Blue Suns armor?"

I smile mischievously. "There are about 60 officers here at the HQ. We have around 10 pilots, and 30 civilians. My plan is for the officers and the pilots to don the armor. We'll escort the civilians back to my apartment building as a group. Then we'll march down to the HQ and commandeer gunships and troop carriers there. Once that's done, we'll fly them to the Presidium, we'll use the gunships, and the new manpower, and the element of surprise to decimate the Blue Suns and take back the Citadel."

The group all look at each other in interest. Pallin nods at me. "I like it."

Garrus is seemingly deep in thought. Finally he shakes his head. "It's a risky plan. I'm not saying it's bad, because it sounds like it could work. However, communications have been out from that HQ, not to mention the possibility that someone there contacted the Presidium ground base."

I nod. "Yeah… that is a possibility."

Garrus looks at me. "Exactly. The gunships are likely tagged per HQ. They'll know we're coming."

Zero shakes his head. "We'll be shot out of the sky by those damn missiles!"

I slam a hand on the crate. "Damn!"

Garrus is right! Those surface to air missiles will destroy us for sure. If only there was some way to… I don't know… distract them somehow…

"What do we know about the missiles?" I ask someone, anyone.

"I did a little reconnaissance on my way here." Garrus responds. "They're heat seeking single missile silos. It takes about 10 minutes to reload them but they fire automatically."

I sigh. "I know what to do then. Somebody has to take a single ship through first, with the rest following close behind. The lone ship will have to be over-heated or something to keep the focus on it."

The group looks at each other.

Bailey shakes his head. "That's far too risky. There must be another way."

"There probably is another way." Garrus says sounding slightly frustrated. "But another way will take too long. Splicer's right. This is the only way we'll be able to mount an offensive before it's too late."

"I volunteer." I say loudly.

"What?" Zero asks concerned.

I sigh. "I'll fly the distraction."

The group is silent.

"You're sure?" Pallin asks me.

I shake my head. "No. But nobody else will do it."

"We respect your sacrifice, Splicer." Garrus says with a respectful nod at me.

I scoff. "Sacrifice? Oh, you're not getting rid of me that easily, Garrus. I'll come out of this alive. Save some Blue Suns for me."


	16. Chapter 16 C OIW! Part 5: The Battle

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Back when I first started writing the Crisis multipart event series, I didn't think it would last for 5 freaking parts! I'm going to wrap things up in this chapter, and I'm sorry if it seems like this has gone on for too long. Also I'm sorry if this chapter feels a little rushed, but I want to get things done with.**

**I'm not completely satisfied with this chapter… buuuut it turned out ok for the most part. Sorry about Ch. 15 by the way. That was total crap and I should have tried harder. Same with this chapter. But I'm in a trench here and I'm prepping for the next charge. That'll come in the next chapter. So if this chapter sucks in comparison to past ones, bear with me until Ch. 17, please.**

**Thanks for reading.**

**Mockingbird79**

* * *

><p>"<strong>The warrior doesn't care if he's called a beast or a dog; the main thing is winning."<strong>

**~Asakura Norikage~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 16: Crisis! On Infinite Wards! – Part 5<strong>

**The Battle of the Suns**

**10:23 PM March 15, 2182**

* * *

><p>"<em>Alright, Splicer. We're ready. Let's get Operation: Solar Wind underway."<em> Garrus says over my omni-tool.

… "Solar Wind?"

"_Uh… yeah. I thought it should have a name. You know for simplicity."_

I frown. "Right… Well I had a question."

I hear Garrus sigh audibly. _"What?"_

I roll my eyes. "I was wondering how we're all going to tell who's who. I mean you're all going to be wearing Blue Suns armor. How are we going to tell each other apart?"

"_I planned for that. I linked all our omni-tools to the armor's VIs. The HUDs in our helmets will outline friendlies for us. Unfortunately you don't have that privilege because you're not wearing Blue Suns armor and you're not here to link your omni-tool, and I have your helmet so…"_

I scowl. "Bastard… Alright Garrus. I'm taking off. Get ready."

I hop into the aft cargo hold of the ship and start lighting some of the pyres I set up inside with Incinerate.

After they're all lit I pick up my Dragon's Breath. "SNAKE: Take off and fly toward the Presidium."

"_Warning! Aft side Cargo bay doors are open! Do you wish to continue?"_

I roll my eyes. "Yes."

The cargo ship takes off from its position in front of the C-Sec station and starts flying toward the Presidium.

I touch my throat mic and select Garrus from my contacts. "Garrus. I'm off. Are you guys close behind?"

"_We're taking off now. And for what it's worth, good luck Splicer. If you die I won't release the information on your helmet."_

How nice. "Thanks Garrus. That uh… means a lot."

That familiar high pitched whining and beeping starts sounding throughout the ship. Here they come!

I see multiple blue light trails appear from behind buildings. The blue trails quickly redirect themselves towards me and they quickly approach and reveal themselves as missiles.

I hit the nearest one with Electro Bolt, sending it spiraling off. I push one downwards using Telekinesis and throw another one to the side sending it spinning into a building. Dozens more take their place. Dammit! How many of these did the Blue Suns set up?

I hit three more with Electro Bolt killing their guidance systems, sending them flying into one another. I feel drained suddenly and I realize my EVE is gone. Damn!

I raise my turret and start firing at the missiles. Explosions start appearing all over the place, filling the air with smoke. Out of the smoke, many more missiles appear.

I continue the onslaught against them. Finally I hear SNAKE speak through my omni-tool. _"Approaching Presidium. Missile targeting field passed."_

Yes! I made it! That's how I work! Suddenly a single lone missile appears out of the smoke. Shit! A late bloomer!

The missile approaches quickly. I raise my turret again and fire at it until I see a smoke trail appear from it. It starts spiraling out of control and flies past my field of vision. I feel the ship start to shake violently as the missile collides with one of my wings.

Crap… I quickly grab a support rail and hold on for dear life as the ship starts spinning out of control. The massive g-force makes my vision darken before we crash.

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I slowly open my eyes and look around me.

Well that's not good. It seems that I am trapped underneath the mangled flaming wreckage of my stolen cargo ship which has landed inside a store. At least I'm on the Presidium. And alive.

Sounds like Garrus already started the attack against the Blue Suns. I can clearly hear gunfire and explosions nearby.

I wince as some flames singe my face. I blow it out and sigh in exasperation. Okay, time to leave. I try to lift the large girder off of me but I drop it when the hot metal burns my hands.

I then try just pulling myself out from under the wreckage but a horrible pain in my right leg stops me.

"The hell?" I mumble to myself. I lean back and look underneath the girder. That's lovely. My leg is impaled by a… what looks like a sword. The sword just happened to go in between my armor plates. That's… interesting?

I sigh. Looks like I'm not going anywhere.

After a while, I hear voices nearby. I lie perfectly still and listen.

"Come on! They need reinforcements!" I hear a voice that sounds batarian say.

"We're just one squad! How will we turn the tide?" I hear another person that sounds turian say.

"Grow a pair! Or… whatever turians associate with manliness! I have more balls than you!" I hear a woman say.

"Stop your bickering and follow… What the hell?" I hear the batarian say.

"What're you… Damn… what happened here?" I hear the woman say.

"Looks like a ship crashed." I hear the turian say. Shit! They're coming in here!

I try to draw one of my guns but I can't reach them. I reach for my pistol but remember that I didn't get it back from Alex. Fuck! I don't think I have much EVE. Maybe enough for just one. They'll see me here! I need a weapon! And fast!

I look around the room. I spot something in the fire, looks like a flat metal donut or something. I reach out with Telekinesis and pull the disk out of the flames and keep it hovering above my hand. It's glowing red hot, it should do some damage.

Alright, the second one of them sticks their ugly head past some of this wreckage…

I see movement past some of the debris. Finally a merc comes around the corner. He spots me and before he can even utter a shout I fling the disk at the merc.

The merc stares at me for a few seconds. Did I miss? His head then tumbles off of his neck. He falls to the ground and I see the disk embedded in the wall behind him.

Wow… effective.

Shouts of alarm follow and I see more movement past the debris.

Shit! I muster the last ounce of strength and EVE left in my body and use Telekinesis to pull the beheaded merc's handgun into my hand.

As the next merc passes, I fire and score a headshot. The last merc, the turian I assume, gets smart and runs off. Damn, this pistol went right through her shield! I'm keeping this. Alright, time to get this… sword out of my leg.

I peek under the girder again. I hit myself with more EVE which in retrospect I could have done earlier but I was too stupid and panicked to do so and use Telekinesis to slowly pull the sword out of my leg. After it's out, I drag myself out from underneath the wreckage. I look down at my leg, which is healing. Why is my Fast Healing so weird?

At least it's healing. I quickly limp out of the store and take a breath of fresh air. I look over my shoulder at the sign to the store.

Wow. Galactic Legendary Weaponry. So they sell like… katanas and… ancient krogan swords or something? That's… okay I suppose.

An explosion nearby throws me off my feet. Ah! Dammit! Why does this keep happening? I get up and look toward the Presidium Tower Base where I can see muzzle flashes and bullets in the low light.

I start sprinting toward the battle opening my omni-tool to contact Garrus at the same time. "Garrus! You there? It's Splicer!"

Static clouds Garrus's voice, but I can make out what he's saying… sort of. _"Splicer? We saw you go down, I'm amazed you survived…"_

"Like I said. You're not taking me down so easily."

"_Sorry for doubting you, I guess. Well we could use your help. We backed the Blue Suns to the base of the Presidium Tower, but they've gotten reinforcement from some heavy turrets like you saw earlier. Now we're pinned down."_

Damn! I wish I still had mine. It must have flown out of the ship while I fell. "Alright I'm coming. I'll see what I can do to help."

"_We'll be waiting."_

Garrus hangs up and I duck around a corner to the base of the Presidium Tower. Damn. It happened again. I'm in the middle of enemy territory.

I quickly draw my assault rifle and start picking off the clueless Blue Suns. In the low light, I guess it's hard to see me.

I quickly spot the biggest problem, the turrets. There are three of them, each one sitting on a separate truck.

I sprint around a small planter and leap into the air toward the first truck. I land on the turret operator and break his neck in the process. That was totally by accident but I bet I looked awesome!

I straighten and take control of the turret and use it to blow up the other two trucks with continuous fire.

After that's taken care of, I spin the turret around and eliminate the last few Blue Suns.

Finally the guns silence. I take a deep breath and hop off of the truck.

Suddenly I am struck by a flurry of assault rifle fire from multiple directions in front of me. The projectiles break through my shields and the multitude of bullets strike my armor and throw me onto my back.

Who the hell was shooting at me? Thank goodness my armor held together. And thank goodness whoever shot me wasn't a good shot.

I slowly get to my feet, taking cautious glances around the area.

Somebody tackles me to the ground however and holds a gun to my face.

After a few seconds the person speaks. "Splicer? Dammit man I thought you were dead!"

"Zero? That you?"

"Yeah." Zero takes off his helmet and helps me to my feet. "Damn it's good to see you. I thought you died when your ship went down."

Huh? "I called Garrus a little while ago. He didn't tell you I was alive?"

Zero shakes his head. "No he didn't."

Odd… "Well whatever. Is that it? Did we win?"

Zero nods. "Yeah, we won. There are still Blue Suns on the Citadel, on the Wards, but once we get up onto the Tower, we can open the Wards for the turian military. They'll roll in and clear the rest of the Suns out."

"But what about the rest of the hostages on the Wards?"

Zero smirks. "Have faith in your Citadel Security. Pallin rallied the officers on the Wards. They took out the HQs on each Ward. It's over."

My eyes widen. No way! I figured I'd have to do all the work! "Zero that's fantastic! Let's get up the Tower."

"Sounds good." He says with a nod.

"Splicer!" I hear someone call nearby

I see a figure in Blue Suns armor run up to us. "Splicer! It's good to see you!"

I shake his hand. "Nice work Pallin! Listen we got to get up the Tower. Can you get in contact with Tevos or Nihlus or somebody?"

Pallin nods. "I think so…"

He opens his omni-tool and sets it to speaker phone. After a moment, I hear the asari councilor, Tevos's voice.

"_This is Councilor Tevos. Identify yourself."_

Pallin takes off his helmet. "This is Citadel Security Executor Pallin. I've rallied the C-Sec officers on the Wards. We've eliminated the Blue Suns and secured the Presidium. Requesting access to the Presidium Tower."

After a long pause a new voice, this one sharp and high pitched replaces Tevos's. _"How can we know for sure that it is you?"_

Pallin sighs. "Tevos. Remember that night on Illium twenty years ago? In Eternity?"

Uh… What?

After an amazingly long and awkward pause, we are bathed in a bright light that comes from the elevator to the Presidium Tower. Wow that… worked?

I glance at Pallin and follow him into the elevator with Zero and a third turian, who I assume is Garrus.

"Garrus, is that you?" Pallin asks the new comer.

The turian nods and removes his helmet. Yeah that's Garrus.

For once I am thankful that the elevator is slow. It gives me a chance to rest.

I drop down to the floor with a sigh and let my head fall against the wall.

"Splicer." I feel someone shaking me. I must have fallen asleep. Zero is crouched in front of me. "We're here."

I get to my feet and stretch as the elevator slows to a halt. Pallin leads the group out of the elevator and into the near pitch black interior of the Presidium Tower with me at his right, Garrus at his left, and Zero bringing up the rear.

Bright lights blind us as we walk in however. I shield my eyes and try to see past it to the source.

"Turn on the lights! They're not Blue Suns!" I hear a turian say.

"They're wearing the armor." Someone mumbles.

"I can tell." Says the turian.

Some dull lights turn on around the room and the bright flashlights turn off. I can see four people. Three are armored and armed, but one is off to the side, seemingly separated from the group.

Two are asari and I recognize both. One is Tevos, except instead of her typical dress she's wearing bright orange and white armor, with an Avenger in her hand. The other is Vasir. She's armored in dark violet light armor with dual pistols. She clearly grows up in the next few years.

The only turian in the room is Nihlus, wearing his burgundy armor with his shotgun at his side.

The lonely loner is a salarian, whom I assume is Partif Pyn… Partif Pyn… He is unarmored, with a small caliber pistol sitting on the bench beside him.

Tevos steps up to Pallin who shakes her hand proudly.

"You've impressed me, Pallin." Tevos says. "You've done excessively well as Executor thus far, and now you've taken your authority and skill to a whole new level. I'm glad you were chosen for the position."

Pallin nods. "Thank you ma'am. However the credit can't all go to me. If it weren't for Detective Sageaus and for Splicer, I probably wouldn't have made it out of the Embassies. Credit should also go to Detective Vakarian. He's been fighting all over the Citadel almost non-stop. And, of course, every C-Sec officer and citizen of the Citadel deserves commendation as well. Splicer should take much of the credit however. He did more to save us, and the Citadel, then he realizes."

I hardly did anything! "Uh… really it was nothing sir."

"Splicer?" Tevos says eyeing me up and down with an analytic expression. "So you're the mercenary that caught that serial killer and had the Citadel in such a huge buzz? What exactly did you do?"

I shrug.

She looks at Pallin. "Pallin?"

Pallin rolls his eyes. "It's hard to count because he did so many things. I guess I should start from the beginning: He saved me and a few others from the Presidium. He took us back to his apartment building which is a fortress, might I add, and let us stay in his home to rest and recuperate. He risked his life to get armor for me and let me use his guns. He helped me rally the Zakera Ward C-Sec officers. He risked his life again fighting off Blue Suns on multiple occasions. He again risked his life to go out and find food, armor, water, and weapons for the C-Sec officers. He risked his life a third time when he flew a ship to the Presidium in order to distract missile silos so that we could get by unharmed, and despite getting hit by a missile and crashing he managed to pull himself out of a burning building to join the fight to take back the Presidium. Not to mention the plan to disguise ourselves as Blue Suns was his idea."

Did I really do all that? Wow I really have no sense of self-preservation… I should probably lay low for a while after this… you know, to try and not get myself killed. As Pallin recounted all the crap I did in the last day or so, Tevos's expression went quickly from patient interest, to impressed, to disbelieving shock. After Pallin stops, Tevos looks me up and down again.

"Splicer I'm impressed. I didn't think a human could be so… selfless."

I frown. "I'd be insulted but unfortunately that's sort of true. If you spoke to fewer politicians you might be surprised."

Tevos smiles. "You're funny too. It's a shame that you're not in C-Sec. I'm sure your skills could be put to better use."

That's all you have to say? No… Good job? Alright, whatever. She redirects her attention to Pallin. "Now, I think it's time we finished this. Would you like to join me as I reopen the Wards?"

"Gladly." Pallin says offering his arm to the Councilor, who takes it. Aw, look at them. They could win the Citadel's Cutest Couple contest if they tried… considering if there is a Citadel's Cutest Couple contest. Dammit! What happened twenty years ago on Illium between those two? If only Shepard were here dammit! Shepard is so nosy, he wouldn't be able to keep his big nose out of this bizarre and surprising turn of events.

I glance over at Vasir, I smile to myself. I sidle up next to her and offer my arm. "Shall we?"

She looks at me annoyed. She then turns quickly and slaps me harder than anyone has ever before, before walking away. I wasn't expecting any less from her. Though I think that might have been like… oh, I'd say around 40% for her.

Zero walks past me and mumbles, "Smooth." as he passes.

I chuckle, rubbing my reddening cheek, and follow everyone as they head toward the platform bridge thingy that Shepard will be inducted into the Spectres on.

Tevos steps to the edge and a holographic keyboard appears in front of her. After a few seconds of typing, two gigantic holograms appear floating in between the Council's podium and Tevos. One is a heavily armored and old looking turian and the other is an asari in light armor.

"_This is Commandant Pythus, commander of the Turian Hierarchy's 18__th__ Dreadnaught Armada. Identify yourself."_ The turian says.

"_This is Matriarch Lidanya of the Destiny's Ascension. State your business."_ The asari says.

"This is Councilor Tevos." Tevos says to both holograms. "The Citadel is secure. I am opening the Wards for the turian navy to clean up. Lidanya, return the Councilors to the Presidium Tower. It's safe."

"_Affirmative, assuming drop formations."_ Pythus responds with a curt nod.

"_Roger that. We're sending the Councilors back to you Councilor."_ Lidanya says.

The holograms disappear and Tevos types into the keyboard for a little while longer.

After a series of keystrokes the room is bathed in a bright bluish white light. Everyone in the room shields their eyes except for me. Man I missed that nebula. This is the end, we're done. This light is washing away all my troubles. It's surreal. Well… now what do I do?

Tevos glances at me. "You should stay here until the turian military has finished clearing out the Citadel. Don't fret, it should not take more than a few hours."

Damn inner monologue. Alright guess I have time to kill…

* * *

><p><strong>5:14 AM March 16, 2182<strong>

"Go fish."

I roll my eyes. "No! You're not supposed to put all your cards down, this isn't poker!"

"What's poker?" Zero asks confused.

"Never mind… Hey you do have a king!" I say pointing at his king of hearts.

He looks down. "Is that what that is?"

I nod. "Yeah that's what the K is for."

"Oh…"

Suddenly the door to the elevator opens and a squad of turian soldiers led by Commandant Pythus enters the room.

Tevos walks up to them followed by the other two members of the Council.

"Councilors, I came to inform you that all remaining Blue Suns have been cleared from the Citadel and are now in custody." Pythus says cradling his helmet in his arm.

"Thank you Pythus, you're a real hero." The turian councilor says.

Pythus nods and leaves the Tower through the elevator.

Tevos turns to the rest of us, who are all gathered in a bunch of tables. "As for the rest of you, we'd like to give each of you a personal commendation. Please come back here, all of you, at 2:00. You may return to your homes and have some much needed rest."

I stand and stretch. That's the best news I've heard all day. Granted I haven't really heard much of anything but still this is great.

I enter the elevator with the rest of the group, Spectres included, and we all ride it down to the Presidium.

After a rather long and awkward ride, we reach the bottom and all go our separate ways.

The power seems to have been restored and I can see lots of people walking around looking disoriented and confused.

Zero sighs next to me. "What the hell happened here, Splicer?"

I shrug. "Shit happens Zero. It's what makes the galaxy go round."

Zero sighs. "Well are we heading back to your place?"

I frown. "Aren't you going to go back to your place?"

"I uh… I left some stuff at your place and I need to go get it." Zero says scratching at his fringe.

"Uh… okay. Sure let's go." I say a little confused.

We start walking toward the taxis near the Embassies, using the bridge nearest to the Mass Relay statue to cross over. As we pass it I notice something, or more specifically nothing.

I remember in ME1 if you walk past it with Kaiden, he says something about it making weird noises or something that makes his teeth chatter. I'm not hearing anything from it.

Maybe only biotics can hear it?

"Hey Zero?" I say turning to him.

"What?" He says absently.

"Can you hear something? Coming from the statue?" I say.

He stares at me confused for a second before looking at the Mass Relay statue. "Uh no… why? Can you?"

I shake my head. "No… weird."

He narrows his eyes at me. "Uh huh… well I have noticed that Keepers tend to ignore it for some reason."

I remember Garrus saying that too. "Uh, come on. Let's go."

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I walk into my apartment with Zero. Everybody's eyes in the room dart to us.

Suddenly a loud outcry of cheer erupts from everyone.

I glance at Zero then back at the group. "Uh… what's going on?"

Anderson runs up to me. "You did it! You guys really pulled through!"

I shake his hand after he shakes Zero's hand.

"Uh… thanks Anderson." I say confused. "All in a day's work I suppose."

Anderson shakes his head. "You ever think about joining the Alliance?"

Wow really? That could also be my in with Shepard… Hm… Nah, I'll just keep going with what I'm doing and hope for the best. "Uh thanks Anderson but I'll pass."

Anderson nods. "I expected as much. Can't blame a captain for trying I suppose."

Oh my God I totally forgot. "Oh hey! What happened to Udina? Do the Blue Suns still have him? We need to go save him!"

Anderson laughs. "You completely forgot about him too huh? Don't sweat it. I got a message from him earlier. Apparently the Blue Suns were going to shepherd him off the Citadel, but some bystanders recognized him and saved him."

Shepard? Oh wait… Shepherd. "Thank goodness."

Anderson frowns. "I didn't know somebody could care about him so much."

I shrug and Anderson chuckles.

Anderson turns away and walks back up to Ramlok, whom he was having a chat with.

I look at Zero who has vanished from my side. The hell? Where did he go? I look back into the apartment and see he's… That's surprising. Looks like him and Nata have a thing going on… Good for them. So much for Nata saying she was only interested in quarians; Girls are so weird.

I walk past everyone and into my bedroom. I sigh and sit on the bed.

I slowly start taking off my armor piece by piece. Now that this whole mess is over with the Blue Suns, I have a lot more to worry about. Garrus is going to have me arrested, I don't know when but he will. And if he can prove that I killed everyone on the helmet's video feed then I can kiss joining Shepard's crew goodbye.

Once all my armor is off I fall backwards onto my bed and cover my face with my hands. What am I going to do?

"Splicer?"

I take my hands off of my face and look up at the door. "Hi Alex. What do you want?"

She walks inside. She's still wearing my shirt and it looks like she found a pair of my shorts for her to wear too. She takes a seat on my bed. "Are you alright? You look sad."

I shake my head with a sigh. "Not sad… just… I don't know, tired I guess."

She rests a hand on my arm. "I understand. You fought hard and everyone here is proud of you. I came to thank you for saving my life… twice."

"No problem." I say absently. I then realize I may have sounded rude so I continue the conversation. "You saved my life too after all."

"I'm sure you could've pulled yourself out of that rubble." She says rolling her eyes.

I shrug. "Maybe. What time is it?"

"Uh… 6:30."

I sigh and close my eyes. "I have to go get an award or something from the Council at 2. Think I can get some sleep before then?"

"I think so. Don't worry, I'll wake you up."

"Thanks…"

* * *

><p><strong>?<strong>

"_Congratulations. Splicer." The Grim Reaper says as it drifts out of the Dark._

_I point a menacing finger at it. "You can't control me anymore monster!"_

"_You are mistaken, Slave. I have total control." The Grim Reaper says as it reaches out and picks me up._

_The Grim Reaper starts to crush me in its steel grip. "Your role in our plan has come. You will go now to the structure that does not belong. You will activate it. Now perform our will!"_

_The Grim Reaper opens its hand and holds me by my left arm, dangling me over the abyss. It uses its other bony hand to stab my left arm. I howl in pain._

_The Grim Reaper then raises me above its head and throws me down, down, down._

* * *

><p>I surge awake with a gasp of fear. My suit clings to me and slides from the sheer level of cold perspiration on me. I pant and bring a hand to my forehead which is blazing hot.<p>

I feel pressure on my stomach. Alarmed, I start to sit up to look at the source, but Alex's gentle hands push me back down.

I suddenly realize that she must have fallen asleep on me or something and my sudden outburst woke her up.

"What- What time is it?" I say breathlessly, my eyes darting around the room.

"Shhh." Alex says gently, "It's alright. Just calm down. You were having a nightmare."

I look at her and steady my breathing. Seeing her face and hearing her voice, just calms me somehow. Odd. What's this feeling in me? Feels like a fluttering emptiness or nausea except… Nope! That's nausea!

I roll off of my bed and stumble into the bathroom, covering my mouth with my hand.

I slide into a kneeling position in front of the toilet and vomit, literally nothing but stomach acid into it. That reminds me I should eat something.

I continue coughing and barfing for another minute or so, before I fall back against the cool metal wall, feeling weak and breathing heavily.

"A-Are you okay?" Alex calls timidly and a little queasily from my bedroom.

I groan in response.

She peeks inside and slowly enters. She kneels next to me, gripping my arm in concern. "Are you sure you're okay? You look sick."

I wave her off. "I'm fine. Just… morning sickness or something."

"That happens to pregnant women. You look very pale."

"Whatever." I say absently.

She reaches to my forehead. I turn my head away and she scowls at me. "Let me feel!"

I roll my eyes and turn my head back to her. She lays her palm on it but almost immediately pulls it away. "God! You're on fire! You're burning up! You must have a fever of like 103 at least!"

I sniff. "Really I don't feel too bad. I'm actually a little cold. Except…"

I look down at my left arm which feels like it's burning. I roll up the sleeve of my jumpsuit and Alex and I both gasp at the sight.

There's a small black pattern on my forearm near my wrist, the easiest way to describe it would be that it looks like an octopus or a sun. It's no bigger than a quarter from end to end, and looks like a black dot with black tentacles snaking out of it. Around the pattern my veins can be seen clearly as they are black and bulging. What the fuck? We both stare at my arm in horror.

Alex musters words first. "What is that?"

"I-I don't know…" I say horrified. That doesn't look healthy.

Alex stands and grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet. "We have to get you to a hospital now!"

I try to pull myself away, but she grabs my wrist and drags me into my room.

"I'm fine- Ah… you're strong." I say as she drags me behind her and I actually put effort into pulling myself out of her grip.

Finally I shake her off and walk to my closet. "I'm fine! Okay? I have to go to the Commendation Ceremony. It would be very rude and disrespectful not to attend. Besides the hospitals are all probably full."

"But you're sick! You have a fever and you have some… blotch thing on your arm! That's not healthy!"

I take my only fancy suit out of the closet and toss it on my bed. "Listen, I'll go to the hospital right after the ceremony, okay?"

Alex crosses her arms angrily and stares down at the floor. "You promise?"

I nod. "I promise."

She turns and walks out of the room quickly.

I sigh and start putting on my suit. After I get my pants, on my door opens again and Nata, Anderson, Nelyna, Zero, Ramlok, and Vaga all rush in.

Nata grabs my arm and turns it over and stares at it. The group gasps. I roll my eyes. Who knew Alex was a tattle tale?

Nata turns to Ramlok. "Ram, grab him we're taking him to a hospital."

Ram starts moving to me. "Alright Jackson just hold still I don't want to hurt you."

I jump away from him as he tries grabbing me. "Hey! You stay away from me you overgrown toad! If you lay your hands on me I'll pull your head plate off with my bare hands!"

Ramlok yelps and scurries out of the room. Zero steps closer and raises his hands calmly. "Alright now calm down Splicer. The fever is making you delirious. You're sick you need to go to the hospital."

I roll my eyes again. "Delirious? Zero I'm not delirious! If I were delirious than I would be seeing like fairies and stuff flying around!"

He pauses. "Do you?"

"No! Now leave me alone! We have to go to the Commendation Ceremony in like…" I check my omni-tool. "Like 3 hours… Whatever! Quit grinding on Nata and go home!"

Zero scowls at me and balls his talons into fists. Uh oh too far. "Listen Zero. I didn't mean that. I just don't want people trying to do stuff for me, I can take care of myself."

Zero shakes his head and rushes out of the room and I hear the front door slam shut. Nata glances at me then rushes after him. "Zero, wait!"

Vaga stares at me and sighs before he leaves, with Anderson following.

Nelyna is the only person left in the room. She stares at me then shakes her head in disappointment. "You know Splicer, for such a nice guy, you can be a… well…" She struggles with the word and looks around to make sure no one else is listening. "an ass! You can't do everything for yourself. These people care about you, they're your friends. You have to let people in, or you'll push them out."

Nelyna turns and leaves, leaving me alone. She's… she's right. I guess… I don't want people to get too close because… I'm afraid I'll lose everything again. Dammit! I told myself when I first got here that I wouldn't leave this universe! I'm here to stay dammit! And how can I do that if everyone I let get moderately close, get pushed away by my damn self-centeredness! Fuck… I'm going to have to apologize to everyone.

Everyone's mad at me… I hate this feeling.


	17. Chapter 17 Honor

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: FINALLY done with Crisis! and I have to say I'm half glad it's over, and half sad. I'm glad because now I can move on with the story. I'm sad because now I have to move on with the story. I liked the creativity that Crisis! brought.**

**Sorry for the tardiness of this chapter by the way. I forgot to post yesterday. I'm not going to throw excuses out there so I'll just request that you forgive me. Thanks for reading.**

**Mockingbird79**

"**In a time of sickness, the soul collects itself anew."**

**~Latin Proverb~**

**Ch. 17: Honor**

**12:53 PM March 16, 2182**

Hm…

Tie? Or no tie?

Should I go fancy? Or fancy-casual…

Meh, no tie. It's a noose anyways. Looks more Nathan Drake this way. Or even a little Illusive Man… hm…

I always liked how I looked in a suit, granted I only ever wore them on one or two occasions but still. Nice.

Of course this isn't really the best day for my appearance. I'm pale, sweaty, and I got this blotch on my arm. I readjust my sleeve to make sure it covers my veiny arm.

"Splicer!" I hear Zero call from the main room. "I'm here, you ready to go?"

I take a deep breath. I hope they don't expect me to have a speech prepared.

I start walking toward the door but my legs suddenly feel like Jell-O and I collapse in the doorway, catching myself, sort of, on the desk.

I start coughing violently, very violently, enough to make me gasp for air in between coughs.

After the couching has ceased I press my forehead against the floor and wipe my mouth with my sleeve.

I feel a hands pull me to my feet. Zero looks at me concerned. "Are you alright? That sounded rough."

I laugh, my voice hoarse from coughing. "I'm good. Just a little tickle in my throat."

Zero shakes his head in disbelief. "You can barely stand. Are you sure you want to go to the awards ceremony?"

I nod. "Yeah, I'm good now."

I push myself from Zero weakly and stand straight.

"Alright…" Zero says reluctantly. I then notice he's in a rather fancy turian formal wear outfit. It's a lovely dark blue with red and white highlights.

"Nice suit Zero." I say as we walk out into the main room. "Where'd you get it?"

"It was a gift. I haven't ever worn it before." Zero says as he helps me into a chair.

"From who?" I say a little absently as I lean me head back over the top of the chair.

"Uh…" Zero pauses. "Nobody, it's not important. We need to go. Pallin's waiting for us outside, he's taking everyone in his car."

I open one of my eyes and look at him. "Who's everyone?"

"Well he invited everyone that was here to come. The huge krogan and the porn star included." Zero says glancing down the hall to the bedrooms.

I smile and chuckle. "If I had to guess Ram isn't coming and Vaga is."

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" His question sounds rhetorical but I'll answer it anyways.

"Ram is agoraphobic and doesn't like big crowds so I figured he wouldn't come. Vaga is coming because he never turns down the possibility of being the center of attention. But you know since he's not getting a commemoration I doubt that'll happen." I say counting the reasons with my fingers. I glance around the room. "Hey… where is Ram by the way? I don't see him which is a different experience…"

"He told me to tell you he's going home. He said, and I believe these were his exact words: 'I think the Blue Suns won't be bothering me anymore after today.' Care to explain that?"

I shake my head. "Nope."

Zero smirks/smiles and shakes his head. "Whatever. Ready to go?"

I nod. "Yeah, help me up."

Zero helps me to my feet and we start to leave.

I stop him at the door. "Listen, I'm sorry about earlier. I was being an ass and I didn't mean what I said."

Zero nods. "It's alright, Splicer. I don't hold it against you."

"Wait!" I hear Nata call from behind us.

We turn around. Looks like Nata dressed up, to an extent. She changed that decorative cloth stuff that adorns her suit to a more silken looking one that's also white and blue. Not much you can do as a quarian I suppose.

Nata runs up to us, but focuses her attention on Zero. "Got enough room in Pallin's car for one more?"

Zero stares at her blankly for a while before physically shaking himself out a stupor. Ah, young love. "U-uh yeah… he's got a… pretty big car…"

I stare at him and laugh under my breath. He's kind of awkward. He's worse than Garrus with fem Shepard in ME2.

Nata claps excitedly. "Great! Let's go!"

Zero nods slowly, still staring. "I uh… thought you wanted to stay behind."

No! Don't question it, just work with it man! Nata tilts her head to the left very slightly. "You don't want me to go?"

Ooooh… Not good… Zero shakes his head frantically. "N-No! That's not what I meant! I meant… I just thought… You said that… Uh…"

I clear my throat a little audibly to get their attention. "We should get going."

Nata nods. "Yes we should. Shall we?"

Zero looks down at the floor, clearly hating himself right now. "Yeah…"

We walk down the stairs as a group. I was hoping that the elevator would be back online by now but it turns out it was broken too.

The descent toward the lobby is getting a little too awkward… I'm going to make Zero uncomfortable… "So… how long has… this been going on?" I say gesturing to the two of them.

Zero cringes like I physically hurt him… Nata seems to welcome the break in silence. "Since the other night. You know the one before you went to the C-Sec station."

"I get you…" I say smiling and nodding. I point at Zero. "You dog."

Zero looks at me with malice. "That's not what she meant!"

Nata giggles. "Calm down, Zero. I meant that I woke up late that night and we got to talking. I think he's cute."

Zero looks up at the ceiling, clearly trying to distance himself from the conversation. I look at Nata. "I thought you said you weren't into aliens."

"I wasn't." Nata hugs Zero around the waist, nuzzling her head into his chest. "Now I'm into turians."

Wonder what's next…

"Excuse me?" Nata says looking at me.

Damn inner monologue.

We get to the lobby and walk outside onto the street where Pallin waits leaning against his car, which looks kind of like a limo. Odd car to drive around in every day…

Pallin pushes himself off of his car. "Hi everyone. Are you ready to go? I already picked everyone else up, and we have to be there soon. Apparently the whole Citadel is gonna be there. It's not just a commemoration ceremony but also a sort of conference. So we better not be late."

I nod. "Yeah we're ready to go. So everyone's in there?" I say gesturing to the car.

Pallin nods. "Yep. Well. Not Garrus, he didn't want to come. He said he wanted to just rest. I understand his point."

I nod. "That makes sense. He's been fighting nonstop since the start. Well we better go."

I enter the car and take a look around. What do you know? Everyone is here.

Nelyna is sitting alone, and she looks quite nice in a green and red gown.

Saphyria is sitting next to Vaga. She's wearing a less fancy than her sister's, but still nice, burgundy dress that, might I add, makes her legs look quite nice.

Vaga, who's wearing a VERY expensive looking turian suit thingy that's silver and black, seems to be quite happy to sit next to Saphyria. They look like they're enjoying themselves.

Anderson is wearing his formal naval uniform and is sitting next to Alex who's wearing a simple yet formal black dress.

I take a seat next to Nelyna who smiles at me cheerfully. Guess everyone forgot about my little outburst a couple of hours ago… Oh well.

I close my eyes and I rest my head back against the seat, tilted to the side slightly so my hair doesn't get messed up, and sigh deeply.

I feel Nelyna push me a little. "Hey cheer up mister."

I just grumble in response.

She rests a hand on my forehead and feels for a second. "You're really warm! You must feel awful."

I shrug, keeping my eyes closed. "Not too bad, actually."

"Are you sure you want to go to this?" She asks taking her hand off of my head.

I nod slowly. "It would be quite disrespectful not to attend."

"Garrus isn't going." I hear Anderson point out.

I shrug. I could say something mean but I won't. I just focus on keeping that varren jerky I had earlier down. I ate that willingly mind you. Did I forget to mention? I've grown a taste for varren meat. It's a little tough but… it's good.

I feel the car slow to a halt, looks like we're here. I sit up and Pallin comes into the cabin of the car from the front.

"Guys, it's packed out there." Pallin says taking a glance outside.

I sigh and get up. "Guess we'll have to fight our way to the front then. Zero you take point."

Pallin rolls his eyes. "Don't worry. I'm parked in VIP parking. We'll be going straight to the Honor Hall."

I frown at him. "Honor Hall?"

"It's just the name of where everyone who's getting commemorated will be. Spectres, C-Sec and us." Pallin says matter-of-factly.

"Okay." I say straightening. "So shall we go?"

Pallin stops me. "Just one more thing. There's a lot of media out there. Are you sure you want to go out there? If you go out there everyone will know what you look like. You'll lose your anonymity."

Damn, he's right… well I've come this far. Guess it's time to come out of my shell. Pun intended. I nod. "I'm sure."

Pallin nods. "Alright."

Everyone stands and Pallin exits first. We all exit the car one at a time.

After I exit I help Nelyna out by lowing her down from the car. After we're down I offer her my arm and we start walking toward the large building where the ceremony is taking place.

This reminds me of those old awards ceremonies where celebrities would come to some place all dressed up and accept awards for being the best actor or something. It all seems very elaborate. How the hell did they set this kind of thing up a few hours after the turian military finished mopping up?

I got to hand it to the Council. They throw one hell of a get together. As we walk toward the entrance to the building I am flanked and consistently blinded by media reporters and spectators.

The reporters are all shoving omni-tools into my face and snapping pictures and asking who I am.

After we're inside, I sigh in relief.

"Damn that was rough." I say to Nelyna as we take a seat. "I don't think I'm cut out for this."

"Well you're sick." Nelyna says taking a seat at a table with Alex and Vaga. "I'm surprised that you're walking, frankly."

I take a seat next to her. "Do I really look that bad?"

She shrugs. "Not awful, but there's clearly something wrong with you."

"Thanks." I mumble sarcastically.

The lights suddenly dim and the Council walk out on stage.

Tevos speaks first. "Greetings, citizens of the Citadel and of the galaxy. As the representative of Council controlled space, we feel it is our duty to elaborate, on the bizarre and tragic occurrence that has befallen us in the past few days."

The turian councilor, Sparatus. "At 5:52 AM GST, on March 14, 2182, the Citadel was attacked by the private military corporation known as the Blue Suns. The attack and occupation lasted for two days, and officially ended this morning, when the remaining Blue Suns troops were captured and detained by the soldiers of the Turian Hierarchy's 18th Dreadnaught Armada, led by Commandant Arcturial Pythus."

Sparatus steps back and Valarn, the salarian councilor, steps forward. "The attack was so sudden and unpredictable, that the turian military and the officers of Citadel Security were initially unable to respond to their threat. The Council was evacuated to the Destiny's Ascension just before the Wards closed, save for Councilor Tevos, who valiantly chose to remain behind to assist the defense. The situation became dire, when the Presidium Tower came under heavy siege. With the aid of several Spectres who were visiting the Citadel, the Presidium Tower was locked down in order to protect Councilor Tevos."

Valarn steps back and Tevos steps forward. "The battle seemed lost, trapped and disorganized, the only hope for the Citadel, the officers of Citadel Security, were unable to rally themselves into the fight. However, several incredibly brave individuals risked their lives to resupply and organize the officers of C-Sec, rallying them and striking a crippling blow on multiple fronts to the Blue Suns threat. Without their help, the Citadel would be lost. Before we commemorate each of these brave souls, we would like to commemorate those lost during, what will be known as, the Battle of the Suns. Though there was little damage to the Citadel itself, during the two days of fighting over 700 people were confirmed killed by the Blue Suns. 500 were innocent citizens of the Citadel, 150 were C-Sec officer, and 50 were soldiers under the command of Commandant Pythus. Along with confirmed casualties, are 3,000 wounded, and 200 missing. Let us have a moment of silence, for these brave souls."

…

"Thank you." Tevos announces after a moment. "We will now begin the commemoration ceremony. First, we would like to honor Commandant Pythus and his troops."

I see Commandant Pythus stand and make his way to the stage, accompanied by applause.

"Commandant Pythus." Sparatus says, holding two framed medals in each hand. "Please accept this personal award, the Palladium Star, as a token of our appreciation. And please also accept this second Palladium Star, on behalf of your troops."

Pythus salutes him and takes the awards. He then starts speaking. "Thank you councilor. It is an honor."

After that simple speech, the crowd claps as he returns to his table.

"Next," Tevos announces. "We would like to commemorate the Spectres who defended the Council Chambers and myself."

All three Spectres: Nihilus, Vasir, and Pyn mount the stage and stand in a line facing the audience.

Each councilor hands each Spectre an award. The Spectres simply salute in unison before exiting the stage under the thunder of applause.

"Finally, we would like to commemorate the individuals who helped save the Citadel and Citadel Security. Please join us on stage: Executor Pallin, Detective Sageaus, Detective Vakarian, and Splicer." Valarn announces. Small hushed whispers sound throughout the crowd as we walk onto the stage. After the spotlight hits us, the murmurs change into cheers and applause along with many flashes of cameras and those little bots that follow reporters around instead of cameramen.

The councilors each hand us an award, I get mine from Valarn.

Pallin, who is holding two awards, speaks first. "Thank you councilors and people of the Citadel. As Executor of C-Sec and on behalf of C-Sec I would like to thank you for these awards. Each man and woman fought valiantly and I am proud of each and every one of them. This wouldn't have been possible without them, thank you."

Jeez it's hot up here… Zero, who is also holding two awards, speaks next. "I am honored to accept this award. And on behalf of my colleague and friend, Garrus Vakarian, I thank you for this honor."

Uh oh. Looks like I'm next. The spot light focuses on me and the cameras flash. "Uh… I'm honored to accept this award. I'm a man of few words… Thank you."

We exit the stage and take our seats again. Alex glances at me as she claps. "Nice speech, it really hit home."

"Shut up." I say sitting down.

After a few more commemorations and speeches, the ceremony ends and lights return to normal.

"Alright." I say getting to my feet. "Shall we go? I'm not feeling well…"

"You alright?" Nelyna says looking concerned.

I shrug. "I've been better."

Pallin nods. "Yeah, let's go. I could use a good rest."

We all start exiting the building, but we're immediately assaulted by reporters.

One reporter shoves his way close enough to me so that I can hear what he's saying. "Edward MacArthur. HCC News. Could you please confirm for viewers and listeners that you are indeed the mercenary known as Splicer."

"Uh…" I respond leaning away from him slightly. "Yeah, I'm Splicer."

Another woman butts in before Ed can ask another question. "Alliyah Opal. Shared Visions. What is your real name?"

"No comment." I say trying to push my way past them.

Ed gets close again. "Are you going to continue to don the mantle of Splicer?"

I roll my eyes. "I'm not a super hero. I'm just a man trying to help people. Now please, if you'll excuse me, I want to go home."

"Where exactly do you live?" Alliyah asks.

"Is that a serious question?" I say worming my way to the car.

Ed runs up just as I'm pulling myself inside. "Just one last question!"

I sigh and motion him on.

He nods. "Are you sick? You look quite ill."

I roll my eyes and enter the car without answering.

I slam the door shut on the reporters and sigh in relief. "That was rough…"

Anderson laughs. "Reporters. Don't worry you'll get used to them. Everyone here?"

Everyone mumbles in response.

"Okay…" Pallin says. "Let's be off."

**3:39 PM March 16, 2182**

I fall onto my bed and let out a deep sigh.

"Hey!" I hear Alex shout.

I groan. "Whaaaat?"

I feel Alex pull me back to my feet. "You're supposed to go to the hospital!"

I groan and wail. "Can't I get some sleep first? I'm exhausted!"

"I'll take you to the hospital, you can sleep on the way." Alex says as she drags me out of the apartment and into the hallway.

"So." I say as she leads me by the hand down the stairs. "What exactly do you do at C-Sec?"

"I'm a communications and audio wave analyst." Alex responds.

Sounds boring. "That sounds lovely."

"Not really." She says shrugging. "To be honest I trained to be a cop. You know, walking the beat, making arrests. That sort of thing."

"Really?" I say, walking up next to her rather than letting myself get dragged along. "Wait, you said a cop, not C-Sec."

She looks at me impressed. "You're sharp. Alright you caught me, I'm from Earth, Arizona to be specific. Have you ever been to Arizona?"

"Yeah." I actually did go to Arizona a few times back when I was a kid. "My favorite thing about it was the nights. I loved how it was warm enough to go out in the clothes you wore during the day, yet you could look up at that clear sky and see all the stars. I couldn't do that where I was from."

"Oh? Where're you from?"

"California, originally. I uh… Moved to a much… colder place when I was 17." I say a little bitterly.

"Sounds like you didn't like it much."

"California or the colder place?"

"The latter."

I shake my head in contempt. "I fucking hated it. And I couldn't leave."

A short silence passes in which I realize that we're still holding hands. Have we been doing that this whole time? I pull my hand out of her grip and she looks down. Guess she didn't realize it either.

I clear my throat. "So uh, how did you wind up here? And as a communications analyst?"

"Long story. Both my mom and my dad were in the First Contact War. They both enlisted when they were 18. They met, fell in love, and in 2158 they got married. A year later, in comes me. When I was 2, my parents decided to help colonies so they left me with my aunt and left. My aunt has raised me since then, and what happened to my parents barely affects me really."

"What happened?" I say interrupting, but in that polite way so that she knows I'm paying attention.

"They were in Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz. My mom was killed but my dad survived. He killed himself a few months later. I was about 17."

"Oh." Damn! Think of something better to say. "I'm uh, sorry."

She shrugs. "Like I said, I never really knew them. Can't miss what you never had right?"

"Go on."

"Oh sorry. Anyways after they died, I decided to become a cop. Don't know why it just sort of happened. I started taking courses and stuff and when I was 18 I joined the Phoenix PD Deputy Police Force because I was too young for the Academy. Well when I was 20, my aunt got sick with this rare genetic illness, and the only doctor in the galaxy who specialized in that particular area was here on the Citadel. So we came here to see what could be done. Unfortunately nothing. After my aunt died, it was too expensive to have her body brought back to Earth, so I had her burial here. After that, well… I just felt tied to this place you know? So I went to C-Sec, couldn't afford the officer's training, and got a job as a communications and audio wave analyst, discovered I had a knack for it and… well the rest has yet to happen."

"Cool story… So that'd make you 23 right now, right?" I ask as we reach the 2nd floor.

"22 actually, my birthday isn't until November. How old are you?"

"Let's see… Uh… 23? Yeah 23." That took me a little too long to figure out. Better check my math. Let me see… I was 17 when I went to Rapture. I was there for exactly 6 years. I got here on my 23rd birthday… and my birthday isn't for another couple of months so… Yeah, 23. Phew. Thought I lost it for a second.

"You're only 23?" Alex asks sounding baffled. "You look a lot older than you are."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I ask looking for something reflective to see if I have crow's feet.

"Good thing. I meant that you look more mature than you are. More grown up. Most guys your age are still sucking on kegs and trying to grow beards."

I rub my stubbly chin. "Yeah… I still don't have the beard thing down quite yet… but if you must know, I never went to college."

Alex shrugs. "Neither did I. Didn't you listen to the story?"

"I did. Just saying. You know I wanted to be a cop when I was younger too."

Alex smirks. "Yeah right."

"It's true!" I say as we exit the stair well and enter the lobby. "I wanted to be in SWAT."

"Hm… Yeah."

I frown. "Yeah what?"

"You'd look good in a uniform."

I chuckle. "Oh yeah? You still got yours? Maybe I could try it on."

Suddenly Alex stops in her tracks facing forward wide eyed. I frown. Was my joke too distasteful? Was my dry humor too moist?

I look up at the exit and see a small squad of C-Sec officer and Garrus standing facing us.

I walk towards them. I knew this would happen eventually. I sigh. "Alright Garrus. Take me away."

"Sorry about this, Splicer." Garrus says handcuffing my hands behind my back. "Honestly I am. If there were any other road, I'd take it. But I just can't let a criminal roam free."

I smile. "I know you can't, Garrus. I don't hold it against you."

I hear Alex run up and try to pull Garrus away. "Garrus! You can't!"

"Sorry Alex, but I have to." Garrus says firmly.

"No! You don't understand! He's sick! He needs to go to the hospital!"

"Take him away." Garrus says with exhaustion in his voice.

The other officers start leading me outside and into a waiting car.

I hear Alex shouting in protest from the lobby. "No! Check his arm! He needs to go to the hospital! He's dying! You can't take him to jail!"

Dying?

I look at my reflection in the window. I am very pale and thin looking, with dark red rings around my eyes. Well I don't look good, but I don't exactly look like I'm dying. I contort myself a little and pull up the sleeve on my left arm to get a look at the weird mark on my arm.

It's in the same spot, still gross and black and bizarre. What has changed however is the flesh it sits upon, along with a large circular patch of flesh around it; it has turned a dark granite gray color. Along with that the bulging blackened veins are now snaking, spider webbing, and winding their way toward my hand and up my arm further. It looks almost like there are dozens of long, thin, and slimy black snakes crawling under my skin. Except my veins aren't moving.

What the fuck is happening to me?

The car takes off and shepherds me to my fate.


	18. Chapter 18 Promenade to Execution

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

"**Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one."**

**~Johann Wolfgang van Goethe~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 18: Promenade to Execution<strong>

**1:14 PM March 24, 2182**

* * *

><p>"Mister Jackson." I look up from my untouched tray of food to the guard standing in front of me. "You have a visitor."<p>

I nod and start to stand. After a few tries, I get to my feet shakily and slowly follow the guard to the visitor's area.

Just like in those old movies, there are glass windows separating husbands from wives, sisters from brothers, mothers from children, but rather than the phones, there's a small intercom button.

The guard leads me to a booth and I take a seat. On the other side of the glass, Zero stares at me.

I press the button. "Hi Zero."

I take my finger off of the button and wait for his response. He doesn't say anything or move for quite a while, he just stares at me. Finally he presses the button. "Pallin sent me. He wanted me to tell you that the Council moved your trial to tomorrow, in light of… your condition. Don't worry, nobody knows about it except the Council and a few others. They decided that this would be too shocking for the public to see."

I cough into my arm and ignore the small splatter of blood on it. "That's good I guess."

"He wanted me to remind you that-"

"Yeah, yeah I know." I interrupt him so that he doesn't have to keep repeating himself. I've been told at least 6 times that they can't move me to a hospital without a conviction and proper diagnosis. So in other words, I need to be convicted of something and have an examination to get medical attention. Thing is, I can't get a proper diagnosis here. The prison hospital is well equipped and has a good staff, but they have no idea what's wrong with me. All they could tell me was that whatever I have is not contagious, and that it's killing me. And without knowing exactly what it is, they can't medicate me (Other than painkillers) or know for sure how long I have left. Though if _I_ had to take a guess at how long before this kills me… maybe a month at the most, from how fast this is progressing.

Zero stares for a while again. "I'm obligated as a neutral party and upcoming witness in the trial to not say anything else."

"Pallin had to have sent you particularly for a reason." I respond.

"Yeah. Despite the evidence that'll be presented against you, I think you're innocent." Zero says, looking down at his lap. "Still, Garrus is staying secretive. He's only shown the evidence the district attorney who'll be prosecuting you. He's keeping it on the QT too. I don't even know what the evidence is."

"It's a set of video recordings on my helmet." I say. "Funny. I had that installed to improve my skills but now it's just proven a liability."

Zero leans forward in interest. "So the videos are contained in your helmet?"

I shrug. "The helmet has a data chip built in with fail safes. If you try to download stuff from it it'll wipe itself. Though I don't know if it's hard to crack or not so…" I shrug again. "Besides. Garrus is too smart to not have a backup or something. Honestly I don't know much about how it works."

"Who made it?" Zero asks.

"Guy named Jorgal Tyrannax. He lives out on Teyseri in the slums. He's a krogan. His place doesn't look like much, but he's good at what he does." I say, my energy quickly sapping itself. I slowly get to my feet. "Sorry Zero, but I'm not feeling well. I'm heading back to my cell. Take care. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Splicer." Zero says.

I cough into my sleeve again as I leave the visitor's area and head back to my cell. The guard comes into my cell with me and I sit on my bed. He removes my restraints and closes the cell door.

I sigh and walk over to the sink in my cell. There's a mirror built into the wall, which is really a luxury here. Thing is I wish it weren't there. Thanks to my narcissistic nature, I find myself staring at my reflection whenever possible. Honestly I'm not a pretty picture right now.

My complexion is starting to dampen, my old golden glow has lost its luster and now I look… gray. I'm still tan but one of my symptoms is my red blood cell count is plummeting so I've lost a lot of color. I don't even want to look at my arm anymore.

But just glancing at my hand is enough of a reminder. The black veins have climbed their way up my arm and are now past my shoulder and approaching my neck and chest. They've also found their way onto my hand; also the dark granite gray flesh surrounding the mark is spreading. Wherever the dark flesh is the veins are gone. It's like the veins are pulling the gray flesh after them. The only thing unchanged is the mark. Still the same size, still in the same spot.

I look away from my reflection and splash some cold water in my face to try and wake myself up. The doctor here said I should limit how much I sleep. He said that if I sleep too much, which is pretty much all I want to do now, that I may hasten my condition.

As if that wasn't reason enough. My dreams are scary. They aren't the nightmares like before. They're typical dreams of strange things like clowns and spiders. Though the scariest dream is one I've been having a lot lately.

Every few nights a few times a week, I dream I am falling over a gorgeous burnt orange and red desert. The sky on my left is red and violet as the red sun sets, the sky on my right is violet and the bluest blue ever, TARDIS blue, with billions of bright and clear stars and nebulas, and with a huge moon as big as the sun of this desert. The moonlight paints the sand on my right whitish blue and dark violet, contrasting the adobe red and burnt orange on my left. Even from my great height, I can see the wind, constantly and artfully reshaping the dunes below, making it look like I'm falling into a colorful sea or an ocean.

I'm falling headfirst toward the endless dunes and sand. The air feels warm, not hot and everything is silent. It's almost as if the air is so still that I can't even hear it rushing past my head as I fall. What scares me about the dream is not that I am falling, it's not that I have no way to stop myself or whatever. It's the peace I feel that scares me. In the dream I feel no panic, like I was supposed to be falling or even like that falling was as normal as walking or breathing. Of course I don't feel this fear until after I awaken. While I dream, I am worriless, weightless. The second I would hit the ground, I wake up, feeling worse.

I usually don't remember what happens in my dreams, but this is the most vivid dream I've ever had.

Ha! Listen to me! I'm contemplating dreams! You have more important stuff to worry about Rob! You're going to be tried for multiple accounts of murder tomorrow! And you're dying of some bizarre illness!

I lie down on my bed. I don't feel like worrying. Hopefully I dream the Desert dream again. I close my eyes and instantly fall into a deep sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero stands from the chair he had been occupying for the last few moments.

_I can't let this happen. Splicer saved my life and is a hero to the Citadel. And he's a loyal friend. It's rare for me to feel like this, empathy and attachment for another person that is. Considering what my childhood was like, can you blame me?_ Zero thinks to himself.

However Zero had more important things to think about than his childhood, hell he didn't even like thinking about it. So instead, he weighs his options.

_This will be my most important investigation yet. I'll start with that krogan, Splicer mentioned. Good thing I wrote his name down: Jorgal Tyrannax. On Teyseri Ward._

Zero quickly leaves the prison, reclaiming his sidearm and his omni-tool at the front desk. He takes a seat in his car and calls dispatch from his omni-tool.

"Dispatch." He begins. "This is Detective Zurin Sageaus, badge number 839890."

"_How can I help, detective?"_

"I need an address for a krogan named Jorgal Tyrannax. He lives on Teyseri."

"_One moment… Transmitting his address to your omni-tool now."_

"Thank you." Zero says checking his omni-tool. After he had memorized the address he starts his car, and quickly drives to the krogan's house.

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

Zero descends the stairs at the back of the shanty house into a workshop of some kind. Zero spots the krogan in the corner of the room, hunched over a drawing table, crumpled up rolls of paper at his feet.

Zero approaches slowly, with one hand on his pistol. "Excuse me."

The krogan glances over his shoulder and swivels his chair around to face him. He extends a hand to Zero. "Jorgal Tyrannax. Best armorer and specialized weapon smith in the galaxy. How can I help you?"

"Uh. I'm a friend of Splicer's." Zero says, backing away slightly.

"Hm…" Tyrannax says lowering his hand and stroking his chin. "Splicer? What do you want? Did he send you?"

"Yes and no." Zero says. "I need information."

"Sorry." Tyrannax says swiveling his chair back around. "I don't give out information about clients."

"I'm not here for information about him. It's about his armor, his helmet to be specific. Surely you heard about his arrest. It's the biggest news on the Citadel." Zero says urgently.

Tyrannax sighs. "Yeah I heard. But I can't help you. I know you're C-Sec. How do I know you aren't trying to find more evidence to convict him with?"

Zero scowls in impatience. "Listen. I'm trying to get him out of jail. He's sick, dying. If he doesn't get to a proper hospital soon, he'll just get worse."

Tyrannax scoffs. "Why should I care?"

"Because." Zero taps into his extensive knowledge of krogan history and culture. "You are a member of clan Jorgal. Your clan has one of the longest running bloodlines of warriors in the krogan species."

Tyrannax turns his chair around and waits for Zero to continue. Zero stares him straight in the eyes. "Clan Jorgal is known for its strong warriors. In 1692, an army of hundreds of turian bandits attempting to steal the ancient prized armor of Jorgal Torfac to sell for billions to antiquities collectors were slaughtered by a trio of Jorgal warriors. One of them was you. As a strong warrior, you know the potential one possesses to be a warrior. You and I both know Splicer fits that bill better than most krogan. And you and I both know, a true warrior deserves to die in battle. Not of some illness in a cage."

Silence stretches for a while. Tyrannax smirks and nods. "True. What do you want to know?"

Zero smirks. "Alright then…"

* * *

><p><strong>8:04 AM March 25, 2182<strong>

I awaken, the precise second I hit the sand, with a gasp. I exhale and bring a hand to my forehead.

I know I'm sick when I can feel my pulse without doing anything.

"You awake?" I hear somebody say from the entrance to my cell.

I sit up with some difficulty to see who it is. Another guard.

"You're trial is in an hour. Clean yourself up." He says with some pity.

I frown and feel my face. As my hand passes over my mouth, I find that it is covered in blood, likely from a nose bleed.

I sigh and use the sink to wash my face. I dry it with a towel and stare at my reflection.

I'm still pale and sickly looking. I unbutton and remove the upper part of my jumpsuit to examine my condition. The veins have lengthened and are near the center of my chest and are just crawling up onto my neck and my arm is now completely veined, save for the grey region which has gotten a little bigger too.

I press one vein on my chest with a finger. It doesn't have any give. It is solid like the blood contained inside the veins has solidified. Gross.

"Spirits…" I hear the guard say. I look over my shoulder at him and spy him staring slack mandibled at my back. I look down my back, which also has veins snaking from my arm onto it.

I pull the upper part of my prison garb back over my shoulders and button it up again.

I turn to the guard. "I'm ready. Let's go."

"I'm supposed to take you to the cafeteria first to get something to eat." The guard says with a glint of fear in his eyes.

"We can skip that, I'm not hungry." I respond. My diet the last week has consisted of pinches of bread, tiny morsels that I picked from a tray full of food, and a few crackers. By choice, might I add, I just haven't had any appetite. It's cool, I can go another week or so without eating before I die.

"If you're sure, then let's go. Your trial is on the Presidium. An attorney has been appointed for you and he's waiting for you at the courthouse. Please follow me." the guard says handcuffing me and leading me out of the cell block.

Ah, my very own attorney. The government system seems pretty similar to US government, so that's a plus for me I suppose.

The trip is quiet, a gang of police cars accompanies us as we quickly move to the Presidium. After we arrive, a large crowd of reporters wait, obviously waiting to get a comment.

The cars land and the cops all get out to push the reporters away. After a safety perimeter has been established my driver gets out and opens my door.

The instant I step out of the car, and the reporters get a good look at me, they fall dead silent.

After a few seconds the regain their composure. One reporter extends a hand past a cop shouting, "Are you being tortured for information?"

Another one shouts. "Have they been depriving you of food?"

"What is your take on this accusation?" Another says.

"How does it feel to be a hero, sent to prison immediately after your commendation ceremony, who has besmirched the Council's reputation with these accusations?" Another, rather mean, reporter shouts.

I ignore all questions thrown at me and get inside of the courthouse without anyone trying to assassinate me. Though I don't know why they would.

The guard leads me into a small room with only a table and two chairs in it, one of which is occupied by a turian with his back to the entrance. The guard sits me down in the chair opposite him. Strange, he looks familiar.

"Hello, Splicer." The attorney says with a friendly tone. "Are you feeling well?"

"Fine." I swear I've seen this guy somewhere before!

"My name is… well… never mind. We've already met I believe. I had the pleasure of speaking with you, briefly before the attack. In interrogation?"

Oh yeah! "You're the guy who gave me my identification and who falsified my DNA reports!"

He nods. "That is correct."

"Who are you?" I say threateningly. "You said that you worked for some people who'd hate to see me in jail. Who are you working for?"

"Calm down, Mr. Jackson. I'm here to help. You can call me… Defense for now. I work for the Shadow Broker." The turian says calmly.

"The Shadow Broker? … Defense?" Odd call sign but whatever I didn't pick it. "Okay… Defense. How can you help me?"

Defense smiles. "Simple really. See, we can't… as you humans say, weasel you out of this one. In lieu of traditional methods like bribes and blackmailing, the Shadow Broker has chosen his most skilled and trusted attorney to do the job."

Unorthodox but fine all the same. "So, Defense, C-Sec assigned me an attorney. How did you come to fill the position?"

"Traditional methods." He says with a smile.

I smile. "No complaints here. So why is the Shadow Broker so interested in me? I did one job for him."

"He sees potential in you. And there's a sensitive matter that needs attention and he believes that you're the best pick to do the job." Defense responds offering friendly smiles with each word.

"Why am I the best pick?" Seriously I've been doing this for literally 3 months. I have very little experience. And hell, I'm dying.

"In his own words? He said that, 'You have a skill set most mercenaries don't employ. That skill set being versatility.'" Defense says with a proud expression.

I nod. Sounds about right. "So this matter… how long has it been going on?"

"Since before the attack." He says with a shrug. "But I can't explain right now."

"Okay." I say. "I'm satisfied. Now onto the matters at hand."

"Of course." Defense says opening his omni-tool. "Now, I have a few questions, and if you don't mind I'd like to record this conversation."

I nod and wait for his questions.

"First: Did you actually kill all of the people you are being convicted of killing?"

I think over the list. I'm being accused of 7 accounts of first degree murder. "I killed five of them. The other two, no. I've never killed any quarians or elcor before."

Defense nods. "Alright, noted. Second: For what reason did you kill these people?"

"Money, or by coincidence mostly. I was paid to do something, sometimes it was to kill a specific person. During a job, the situation sometimes warranted further action."

"I see." Defense says understandingly. "Finally: Do you happen to know what damning evidence is being presented against you?"

"My helmet." I say, taking him partly by surprise. "The helmet has a built in micro-camera that records certain altercations. Several of these videos include me killing somebody, using several different methods."

Defense frowns and closes his omni-tool. "That presents a problem. If Detective Vakarian has actual proof that the helmet is yours and that the recordings are genuine, then you're guaranteed a guilty verdict."

I sigh and run my hand through my hair. After a few moments of silence, Defense finally speaks up. "How did he get his hands on the helmet?"

I look up at him. "When I was taken in for questioning, they confiscated my gear. My helmet stayed on until interrogation. Garrus had me take it off. After he beat my face in he stormed out, I guess he took it with him."

Defense shakes his head. "If only we could get our hands on a recording of that interrogation. If we did then we got him. We can even counter convict! What he did is completely illegal."

"Well yeah, I don't think it's legal to beat someone senseless anywhere."

He shakes his head. "No, no. He isn't supposed to examine your personal belongings without a warrant or probable cause. You were proven innocent by forensic analysis so he didn't have probable cause to search your helmet! Yes! We got him!"

I nod excitedly. "Alright, we're getting places! Hey, you said we can counter convict, what does that mean?"

"Hm? Oh we can press charges against Detective Vakarian. I think excessive force and misconduct of the law is enough to get him kicked off the force."

"No!" I shout instinctively. Shit…

"What?" Defense asks incredulous.

"We… we, uh… we can't counter convict."

"Why not?"

Why not? He'll never get the case to investigate Saren and he won't join Shepard's crew then! "Uh… he's not a bad guy. Just a dedicated cop."

Defense shrugs. "Up to you. Just one last request. How sick are you?"

I smile. "I'm dying. I'd also appreciate it if we didn't mention that in the trial, but if worse comes to worse than fine."

"Dying? No cure?"

"No known ones. Want to see the extent?"

He nods and waves me on. "By all means."

I lean forward and pull back my collar revealing the black veins on my neck. Defense jumps but doesn't yelp.

He covers his mouth, appearing to attempt to retain his composure. "If I can't get my hands on a recording then this may be our only option. You have the public on your side and if we get the jury's sympathy then we're golden." He stands, still covering his mouth and keeping his eyes closed. "Well I better go and prepare. The trial will begin in about fifteen minutes. I'll see you soon."

Defense leaves the room and a C-Sec officer comes in and leads me to the crowded courtroom. He seats me in a rather comfortable chair and Defense soon joins me.

After a few moments the judge, an asari matriarch, enters and takes a seat at the stand. "Silence. Case #2: Citadel vs. Robert Jackson. Defense, how does your client plead?"

"Not guilty." Defense replies in a clear and confident voice. Oh I see. He's Defense because he's the defense attorney, ha ha. Very funny. Damn, he's smart.

"Then let the trial commence. Prosecution, your opening statement."

A tall turian with a gold complexion and white facial markings walks forward. "People of the jury. How well do each of you know your neighbors? Perhaps, Mr. Jackson's neighbors know only that, he is a famous mercenary. They choose to simply overlook the fact that he is a cold blooded murderer who believes himself above the law. His role in the rescue of the Citadel is commendable, but that is no excuse to allow him to get away with murdering 7 innocent individuals. It is our duty as citizens of the Citadel, the pinnacle of galactic peace, to put this murderer in prison."

The judge nods. "Defense, your opening statement."

Defense stands. "People of the jury. My client, is a kind man, a generous man, a considerate man. He did no wrong to society. In fact the people he is accused of killing, are criminals themselves, one of whom, a convicted murderer." Ah yes, Mr. Maslow I believe his name was. A young woman hired me to kill him for killing her husband. I gladly accepted ". Is that a reason to kill? No, of course not. But who would you kill for? Would you kill to protect your mate, your parents, your friends, or your children? Who would kill for you? Mr. Jackson is a killer." Hope he's going somewhere with this. "Mr. Jackson killed just a week ago. Do you know who he fought and killed? Blue Suns. He killed Blue Suns. He killed for you, for your mates, your parents, your friends, your children. And he doesn't even know you. That tells you what kind of man he is. He is a man, selfless enough, to risk his life for complete strangers. He sustained numerous injuries, and put his life on the line in order to save the Citadel and your lives. Without him you would be dead. Mr. Jackson is a killer but not a murderer. But would you call a soldier in the military a murderer? Some would. But they fight to protect you, just as he does."

Defense sits and winks at me.

The day goes on, much like this. Just switching back and forth, various witnesses, including myself, Pallin, Nelyna, Zero, and even Nata are called to the stand. After a couple of hours, I start to feel faint and the trial takes a brief recess for me to recuperate.

"This isn't going well." Defense tells me as I drink a glass of water.

"Really? So far it seems like he's been going in circles." He's been asking a lot of questions on what weapons I use and how well I am acquainted with the witnesses.

"He's leading us somewhere." Defense says suspiciously. He looks up and nods at something behind me. "I think he's going to present that evidence now, see? Garrus is here."

I look over my shoulder and spot Garrus taking a seat in the aisles. "Let's not waste time then."

Defense nods. "Your Reverence. We are ready to continue."

The judge nods. "Silence. Prosecution. I understand you have damning evidence to reveal to the jury."

The prosecutor stands. "We do. Prosecution calls Detective Garrus Vakarian to the stand."

Garrus stands and takes the witness stand. Prosecution walks up to him. "Detective Vakarian, please share with the court, what you discovered."

"During an investigation into the murder of the volus banker Barla Von, might I add that Splicer was proven innocent of that crime, I discovered a series of video recordings in Splicer's helmet. These are recordings of his jobs. Out of the 7 people he is being convicted of killing, 5 of them show up in the recordings."

The room erupts with murmurs of shock and disbelief. "Silence!" The judge commands. "Detective Vakarian, is this evidence able to be presented to the court?"

"It is, your Reverence."

The Prosecutor turns and calls out. "Bring in the helmet!"

An officer enters the room and jogs over to the Prosecutor empty handed. He whispers in his ear and the Prosecutor's eyes go wide. He walks up to the judge's stand.

The judge signals Defense to join them. He frowns in confusion and walks over to them.

After a few moments the attorneys return to their seats. Defense leans over and mumbles to me. "They found the helmet destroyed."

No way! I look at him shocked. "What? Who?"

"They don't know. The Prosecution tried to tell the judge that both him and Garrus, might I add that they're the only ones who have seen the videos; both him and Garrus have seen the videos and the evidence. But the judge said it wasn't enough. The Prosecution also requested a further investigation. I brought to light time limitations to the trial. This is what's going to win it for us. Just follow my lead."

"Defense." The judge hails from her stand. "You said we can't continue the investigation because…"

Defense stands. "Because, your Reverence. My client is dying."

The courtroom erupts with shouts of disbelief.

"Silence!" The judge roars. The room instantly quiets. "He's dying?"

Defense pulls me to my feet. "Yes, I'm afraid he is. He is terminally ill with an unknown malady. Under request of my client, we have chosen not to reveal this information. However, in light of recent circumstances, we have chosen to reveal this to the court."

"Have you any medical reports to confirm this?" The Prosecutor asked.

"My client can better explain that." Defense announces. The room grows hush.

I clear my throat. "Well, no we don't have any medical reports, simply because I haven't been to a real hospital yet. They told me I couldn't leave the prison to go to a hospital until I was convicted of something at this trial and they said they couldn't get an official diagnosis at the hospital. The doctors at the prison hospital, however, don't know what I have. It is an unknown malady. All that they can tell me is that it isn't contagious and that it's killing me in more ways than one."

"If nobody can back up your story, how can we believe you?" The Prosecutor objects.

I look at Defense. He mumbles. "Take off your shirt."

I sigh and unbutton my shirt. After it's unbuttoned I pull off the top part of my prison jumpsuit and reveal my sickness to all the people and cameras in the room.

Flashes of cameras erupt along with cries of horror at the sight of me. Can't blame them, I'd have been grossed out too.

Burr… it's cold in here. I feel like I'm at a physical.

I pull my shirt back on. Defense looks at the Prosecutor. "Satisfied?"

Garrus looks horribly guilty. Yeah you should! You put me in prison even though I was dying you bastard! Alex freaking told you! I can't really blame him because the Council wanted it on the QT but still, he didn't even check. You better appreciate the fact that I'm not counter convicting you!

The judge clears her throat. "In light of these new circumstances, I must reveal to the court that the evidence found on Mr. Jackson's helmet was destroyed by somebody. Prosecution requested an extension in the investigation to compile further evidence against the defendant. However, being that we are living on borrowed time, I am unable to approve that request. So in the absence of any evidence tying Mr. Robert Jackson, aka Splicer, to the murders of Ganar Marrow, Jack Maslow, Stacy Walsh, Zek'tas Tarr nar Zaea, Zerian Taerem, Gorbre Thesk, and Kazzen Finn, I must find the defendant innocent of all charges of murder of the 1st degree, and all charges must dropped from his name. A further investigation, into who destroyed the helmet will be run by C-Sec investigators. Court is adjourned."

YES! I give Defense a hug and the courtroom erupts with applause, wow I had a lot of supporters here. "Thank you, Defense."

"Call me Pinch."

"That's an even worse name than Defense but I don't fucking give a damn! I'm going home! Then I'm going to take a shower! Then I'm going to a hospital." Nothing can dampen my mood right now.

Pinch smiles. "Congratulations. The least I can offer you is a ride home."

I nod. "Yes thank you. What can I do to repay you?"

"We'll be in contact." He replies simply.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn around. Nata, Nelyna and Zero are all beaming at me. Well Nelyna is beaming and Zero looks happy but it's hard to tell with only one mandible, and I assume Nata is happy too.

I give them hugs. "Thanks for sticking up for me guys."

"No problem!" Nelyna says cheerfully. "Well, sorry that I can't stick around but we are booked solid back at the Consort's Chambers. I'll come by to visit after my shift is over."

I nod and she departs. Nata and Zero follow me out to the car with Pinch. He brings us all back to my apartment building and leaves, but not without congratulating me one last time and telling me we'll be in contact.

I return to my apartment with some assistance from Nata and Zero. Vaga and Ram are inside waiting for us.

"We heard you were cleared!" Ram roars excitedly. "I'm baking you a traditional krogan celebration pastry! I won't add the blood of your enemies, even though that is the main ingredient, but there were no enemies included in this celebration! Yay!"

I smile and playfully punch him. He twitches slightly in response. I laugh. "Thanks Ram, I'm sure it's delicious."

Vaga laughs loudly. "We are getting so wasted later!"

I laugh. "Sorry to let you down but I'm kind of sick."

"Later is a very general term, man." Vaga says wryly, before grabbing his jacket and leaving. As he leaves he calls back. "I'm heading to Presidium Central hospital! I'm going to call in some favors with the nurses there to get you a nice room! We'll meet you there!"

"Thanks!" I call back to him. I turn back to my friends. "Right now, I want to shower and get changed."

I shuffle my way into my bedroom and take a much needed shower. I showered while in prison once but I scared some people with my arm so I didn't do it again. After my cleansing is complete I put on some fresh clothes and join my friends back in the main room.

"We have a cab ready to go to the hospital," Zero says gesturing to the door. "Let's go. The sooner we get you there the better."

"No arguments from me." I say using Zero as support as we head to the top floor where the garage and vehicle hanger is.

We take the cab and I am quickly and comfortably admitted to the special care wing. Somehow I feel that this won't spare me from invasive testing but at least it's better than sharing a room! Bleh… I'm going to have a horrible time here, I just know it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope you enjoyed this dull and rather confusing chapter if I do say so myself. All will be answered in time good friends. I like the next chapter a lot. It's one of the few chapters featuring no combat, but plenty of action. I love the next one, and I think it's time to end the crappy chapters so if you're losing interest because of crappy chapters; I sincerely apologize and please just wait for the next one, chapter 19. You'll love it. Promise.**

**How do you guys like Zero so far? He's a relatively new OC but he's an important character, and his very mysterious past will be revealed in part 3 of Massive Shock which is just as much is story as it is Splicer's.**

**Also, the dream I describe the one about the orange desert is a real dream that I have on an uncomfortably regular basis! **

**I have that dream at least three times a week and for some reason I can remember every little detail of it without any trouble. Anyway, leave a review telling me what you think my dream means!**

**Update: Sorry about the double notification, I forgot to put in line breaks. Sorry.**

**See you next Tuesday!**

**Mockingbird79**


	19. Chapter 19 Destiny, By Design

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

"**The wheel of fortune turns round incessantly, and who can say to himself, 'I shall today be uppermost.'"**

**~Confucius~**

**Ch. 19: Destiny, By Design**

**4:15 PM March 31, 2182**

"What do you mean you don't know what it is?" I roar at the salarian doctor.

"Sorry, symptoms don't match any known human, asari, turian, salarian, hanar, drell, batarian, elcor, quarian, volus, krogan, or varren illnesses." He responds.

I fall back onto my bed. "So I'm going to die?"

"Yes. I'm afraid so." He says.

"How long, do you think?"

"A week or two at best. Though your malady isn't contagious, I am quarantining you to the hospital for the time being, under orders from the Council. And visitors will be permitted. A nurse will come to check on you in a few hours." He then exits the room leaving me alone.

I sigh. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Guess I can't change what can't be changed. At least the tests they performed weren't too invasive. They consisted of biopsies of the grey flesh and the veins. Funny thing is the veins don't bleed anything. The doctors said that there's some kind of strange solidified substance similar to earth coral in the black veins. This of course was one of the most bizarre and disgusting things I've ever heard.

The veins have now crawled onto my face and are crisscrossing on my cheek. They've also expanded over my torso to the other arm and down onto my left leg.

And my left arm is grey from mid bicep down. And like normal, the mark hasn't changed at all, still black and weird.

"Mister Jackson?" I look up at the nurse. "You have some visitors."

I wave her away and Nata, Nelyna, Vaga, and Alex come in. "Hi guys."

"Spirits," Vaga says in shock. "Man you look terrible."

"Thanks. Where's Ram?"

"He's got pathophobia, trypanophobia, nosocomephobia, mysophobia, and iatrophobia. Of course he wouldn't set foot here." Vaga says laughing.

I frown. "You're going to have to dumb those down for me."

He rolls his eyes. "Pathophobia is fear of disease, trypanophobia is fear of needles and pointy objects, nosocomephobia is fear of hospitals, mysophobia is fear of dirt and germs, and iatrophobia is fear of doctors."

Makes sense. "So, those flowers for me, or are they for somebody else you know here?"

Nata nods. "Yeah… uh… where should I put them?"

"You can put it here on my nightstand. That pile over there is from other people." I say gesturing to the mound of flowers and cards in the corner of the room.

She puts the flowers on my nightstand and Nelyna takes a card from the pile. "To Splicer: Hope you feel as good as I feel for you right now. Signed your secret admirer. PS. Enclosed please find 7 of my eyelashes. Ew."

That one made me laugh. Nelyna tosses the card back onto the pile and wipes her hands on my sheets. "Who are all these from?"

"Clients, well-wishers, and creepers." That one about the eyelashes wasn't the weirdest one. The strangest one was from a krogan that I buried at the bottom of the pile so I wouldn't have to look at it.

"Oh!" Alex says taking a card out of her pocket. "This is from Pallin, he hopes you're feeling better."

She hands me the card which is adorned with lots of flowers and pictures of happy bees. It reads:

_Splicer:_

_I hope you're feeling better._

_Signed_

_Pallin_

"Official." I place the card on my nightstand next to the flowers.

"So what'd the doctor say?" Vaga asks taking a seat in an armchair.

"He said… He said… He said I'll be fine." I just can't tell them, I have a feeling that they'll take the news worse than I did.

"Oh thank God." Alex sighs with relief. Yeah… Thank God.

"Well, I'm going to check out the cafeteria." Nelyna says after a little.

"I'll come with." Alex says giving me a smile.

"Me too." Vaga says standing. "Not for food. I'm going to see if I can seduce an ailing heiress."

They leave and I look at Nata who's sitting next to my bed with her hand laid on top of mine.

I offer a weak crooked smile. "So… How are you?"

She shrugs. "Alright."

"You know." I say suddenly. "I don't know much about you, come to think of it. Tell me about yourself, a little."

Nata nods. "Okay, well… I was born on the live-ship Rayya. My mother was one of the pilots and my father was the first mate so clan Acie had pretty high standing on the ship. I always felt bad because I got the newer environmental suits and first pick of supplies and whatnot. I always thought it was because of our position, but my parents always told me it was just because we were lucky."

I smile. "You are pretty lucky, you know."

"How do you mean?"

"Well you met me. I gave you 15,000 credits for escorting me around the Citadel. I put a roof over your head. Sure you got kidnapped by Cerberus but you got out unharmed. Now you're here, with all these friends." I gesture at the empty room. "Oh yeah they left."

Nata giggles. "Stupid."

"Shut up." I scoff back, laughing a little.

Nelyna comes back in alone, eating some Jell-O. "Hey guys. Hey, Splicer. What's this stuff? It's tasty."

"Ugh! Nelyna that's processed fish carcass!" I exclaim sounding disgusted.

Nelyna yells and spits it out onto the floor.

I laugh. "Just kidding."

She glares at me. "You're awful."

After she continues eating, I smile. "It's called Jell-O. It's made from gelatin… which is processed horse carcass."

She shrugs. "Whatever a horse is, it's tasty."

"Oh!" Nata exclaims, standing. "If I'm going to stay here a while I should run home and get some food. I'll be back soon."

I wave as she leaves.

Nelyna takes her seat and puts the Jell-O on my nightstand. She places her hands on mine and smiles at me. "How are you feeling?"

I shrug. "Okay I suppose. What's up with you Nelyna?"

She smiles. "Not much. The Consort has been busy as usual, business hasn't slowed a bit. But I took some time off so I got all the time in the world."

"For what?" I ask curiously.

She shrugs. "I don't know… Time to myself. Or to spend with friends. Or with you."

I smile. "Thanks Nelyna."

She leans forward and kisses me on the forehead. Her lips feel hot, familiar. Something surges through me, an old feeling. I look up at her, with a new outlook.

She sees it too, something new, yet familiar.

And we kiss. Her lips meet mine and I flashback to when she revived me, when I first awoke on the Citadel. And I'm filled with a warm feeling, replacing the cold that haunts me. I reach up and hold her face gently with one hand, stroking her smooth cheek with my thumb. Her skin feels so hot. She tastes like lime Jell-O. My favorite.

But then I feel her hand on my face, her fingers bumping the veins. And reality stamps on my mind: I'm dying.

I pull away. "No! Sorry. I can't."

She looks at me confused for a second. But she nods, and looks down. "Okay. I understand."

**A Few Hours Later…**

My nurse, Cora an asari with fairly light skin, comes into the room, interrupting our conversation. "Sorry, but I have to ask you all to leave, visiting hours are over."

Everyone gives me a hug and leaves, except for Vaga. Vaga smiles at Cora. "Hi there."

Cora stares at him. "Hi…"

"Vaga Kotka." Vaga chuckles. "Perhaps you've heard of me."

"I'm afraid not." Cora says. I chuckle.

Vaga shakes his head. "Well I think we should remedy that, how about we go to dinner?"

Cora feigns deep thought. "Hm… no."

Vaga frowns and leaves.

I start laughing. "Nice work. A little blow to his pride does him good now and then."

My laughing makes me start coughing violently however. Cora runs up and keeps me from flailing around too much.

I finish coughing and lower my arm from my mouth with a melancholy sigh. Cora wipes the blood and spit off my arm with a towel.

She then starts typing stuff down on her omni-tool. "So how are you feeling?"

I just give her a look that says, How the fuck do you think I feel?

"Okay. Bad." She types something into her omni-tool. "Alright, now you know the drill. I got to take your temperature then you get a bath."

She starts scanning me with her omni-tool and I groan in frustration. Not another sponge bath! "Do you have to give me sponge baths? I can very easily walk to the bathroom and take a shower. I can still walk."

"Sorry." She says apologetically. "Nothing I can do. Hospital's orders."

"Hospital's orders? Since when do they order you to force me to take a bath?" I ask looking at her annoyed.

"Well I can't force you to take a bath." She says rolling her eyes. "But you have to bathe."

"Why a sponge bath though?"

She rolls her eyes and sighs. "Look… Alright, you can go take your shower. Just keep it to yourself." She says, sounding a little reluctant. Can't blame her. According to the cards I've been getting lots of people would want to give me sponge baths. Despite my protests.

"Thanks Cora." I say getting off my bed and walking to the bathroom.

I close the door behind me and pull off my patient gown, not like it's very covering to begin with. I don't bother with that bracelet thingy they stuck on me when I came in. Apparently it's some kind of monitoring device. A lot more techy than that plastic crap the stuck on you back on Earth.

I get in the shower and set the water to its hottest setting. The scalding water burns for a second but I quickly adapt to the heat. Not like burning water hurts anymore, I set myself on fire on a regular basis with Incinerate after all.

The hot water soothes my body and I let it pour over me, washing my problems away. I stare down at myself, my scarred body. Damn… Who knew it would come to this huh?

All these injuries. I trace my finger over all my scars. Here's the one where that bar impaled me, this one is where I got shot in the leg, here's the one I got from that hunk of metal jammed into my shoulder at the beginning, this one is from that knife that splicer stuck in my chest, and I can't forget the one that almost killed me back in Rapture, that was my first super serious injury…

Dammit Rob! Don't reminisce! That's not even a happy memory. You put that life behind you, now just enjoy your last shower.

**9:15 PM March 31, 2182**

I turn off the shower and towel off. I walk back into my room naked as the day I was born and hop into bed and under the covers. Cora was still in the room, but she's seen me naked everyday now for a week or so. I'm glad our relationship blossomed quickly.

"Happy?" she asks sarcastically.

"Why yes… yes I am." I say lying back on my bed. "Won't last though. Soon I'll be too weak to even sit up from my bed." I sigh. "Cora, if you were going to die in a week. What would you do?"

She looks up at me. She knows my question is serious. "Um… Listen, I'm very sorry that you're-"

"What would you do?" I repeat closing my eyes.

She sighs. "If it were me? I would go back to my bond mate and tell him I love him. I would find the people I care about most and tell them I love them. I would read a book I've always wanted to read. I would eat food I've always wanted to try. I would go to places I've always wanted to see. I would do things that I've always wanted to do, and bring the ones I love with me."

I smile. "That's a good plan. Unfortunately I can't do any of that because I'm confined to a hospital."

"You can read a book."

"I have a week to live. Any good book takes me a week to read." I respond waving her suggestion off like you would a fly.

"Then tell the people you love that you love them." She responds simply. Sadly it's not that simple. It never really is, is it? "Do you have a bond mate?"

I shake my head. "Nope. I'm all alone. Though… never mind."

"What?" she asks playfully. "You like somebody huh?"

I sigh… "What does love feel like?"

She giggles. "Oh young people. So ignorant. Love isn't that feeling you get when you see somebody you think is pretty and you get those butterflies in your stomach. It isn't that feeling you get when you hear somebody talk and their words make you want to just kiss them right there. Or when their hand brushes yours and you feel like your heart just stopped. Love is the feeling you have when you are with the person you love and it's the realization that… that you never want them to go away. You never want their warmth to leave your skin, or their voice to leave your ears, or the lips to leave yours. Love is a feeling people think they've felt before, but they don't know it until they are in love. It's truly a wonderful thing."

That's beautiful… "Who do you love, Cora, you who are so learned in the subject?"

"My bond mate of course." She says giggling.

"What's his name?" I ask looking up at her.

"Raik Tevenx. He's a krogan. Oh and what a krogan!" she says blushing.

… "How sweet."

"So… what's all this about love mister? Do you think you're in love?"

I look away from her. Am I?

"Aw, you're blushing! You're in love!"

I look at her. "Maybe."

"Who is it?" She asks excitedly.

I shake my head. "Like I'm going to tell you."

"Come on! Who?"

I shake my head. "No."

"Was it one of the people who visited you today?"

I start to anger. "Stop."

"Was it the quarian? No the human girl! No, I'll bet it was that asari!"

My anger apexes and I slam a fist on my nightstand, knocking the flowers off of it. "What the fuck does it matter! I'm fucking dying!"

She recoils and looks at me shocked.

I snarl and cross my arms in fury. "I'm not so cruel. To toy with somebody's emotions. How could I do that to somebody? Or to myself? If she loves me back, and I told her my feelings, how could I die knowing that she is dying inside? Even if she doesn't love me, how could I die knowing that she'd live on with the guilt of denying a dying man's cry of love? And how can I let myself love, if I have no time left to enjoy it? When I was young, I found no time for love. I always thought that I'd be able to do these things when I grew up, fall in love, get married, and start a family. I thought at least I'd be able to do something, now I can't do anything. Just go."

I turn away from her and stare out my window at the Citadel. She leaves quickly and I am left alone. Again.

I lie there for hours, watching the Citadel, eventually I drift off into sleep.

**? **

_I am falling over the burnt orange desert. The sun and moon, colliding in color against the sky red, violet, and then blue. It is gorgeous, the light is radiant and the stars and nebulas shine brighter than they ever could anywhere else. I feel the warmth on my skin and a smell warm and sweet fills my nostrils. The dunes are being painted and shaped before my eyes by the light and the still air. The dunes swirl and dance on the sand, looking like beautiful waves of red and orange water. I feel calm wash over me._

_Suddenly… something goes wrong. The stars suddenly vanish from the sky and the sun and moon are both eclipsed. The burnt desert is plunged into darkness and the sky lights aflame and freezes at the same time and turns into a storm, more violent than man ever behold. The burnt orange desert becomes the sea during a storm. It blackens and blues and froths and lightning flashes are all that illuminate it._

_I scream._

_Suddenly the sea starts spinning and it turns into a massive whirlpool. Huge tentacles, wider than entire cities splash and flail in slow motion out of the water. They reach far past me and into the sky, swallowed by the clouds._

_In the epicenter of the chaotic black whirlpool a bright red light appears. Out of the sea, the Kraken comes. The light is the center of its maw. A fire burns within its jagged form._

_Nine levels of teeth and fangs circle out from the light forming its mouth. Eight tentacles spin and flail in the water around me. And I fall._

_The Kraken roars, a hideous noise, the sound of a boat and all its passengers drowning._

_I fall and fall and fall. Closer and closer and closer. Until I fall straight into the fire of its hunger. And burn in Hell._

I awaken with a gasp. I'm on the floor, my sheets tangled around me and my body drenched in sweat. What happened? I can't remember the dream but I know it was a nightmare and that it was different.

It's still late, all the lights are off. I slowly crawl into the bathroom. My legs too numb to stand on my own, I pull myself to my feet using the sink and I look in the mirror.

The veins cover my face and torso now and they are already to my finger tips on my right arm. The grey flesh has engulfed my arm and now is trying to swallow my torso.

I'm out of time.

**2:02 PM April 2, 2182**

"How are you feeling today Mr. Jackson?" My doctor asks me checking my pulse.

I give him that "don't fuck with me, I'm dying" look and he nods. "Alright, noted. Hm… That's strange."

The doctor takes his hand off of my neck. I frown at him. "What's strange?"

"Uh…" He hooks me up to the heart monitor machine. Instead of my heartbeat appearing, it is flat lining. "That can't be right."

"What?" I ask staring at the machine.

"You have no pulse… why that must mean, _you're dead!" The doctor's face warps into the Grim Reaper's face and the hospital is engulfed in darkness and the noise from the flat lining heart monitor becomes the Noise._

_I scream._

I scream. Cora rushes into the room. "What? What's wrong?"

I look at the heart monitor machine and my heart is beating rather rapidly. "Uh… nothing, just a bad dream."

"Alright. How are you feeling today?" She asks checking my pulse.

"Fine. What day is it?" I ask, flinching as her fingers touch my throat.

"It's 11:18 PM April 2, 2182." She responds checking her omni-tool.

I nod. I then start coughing violently and she covers my mouth with a cloth. After I am done, Cora takes the bloodstained cloth away and brings a new one in.

"Is the good doctor in today?" I ask, savoring the cool kiss of the air on my sweat covered face.

She nods. "Yes. He'll be in in just a moment. First I have to feed you."

I groan. "Dammit, how many times do I have to tell you, I'm not hungry. Doesn't the IV take care of all my nutritional needs?"

"No it administers your painkillers." She says smiling. "Now you haven't eaten a single bite for a week, please eat something."

I sigh. "Fine. But I'm not doing this for me."

"Thank you very much for your consideration." Cora says with a smile. "Can you sit up?"

I try but fail. "No…"

"Okay." She starts feeding me some soup.

"So. How long have you been a nurse?" I ask forcing down another spoonful of soup.

"About 80 years now."

I'll never get used to that asari timetable. "Most humans would be a doctor by now."

She shrugs. "Humans do things so rushed in my opinion."

I roll my eyes. "Don't judge, we have a century to live at best. Asari live for millennia."

"Ah, ah. Just one millennium." She says smiling. "It's rare for an asari to get past 1,000. 1,100 is considered old."

"How old was the oldest living asari ever?" I ask using every bit of my concentration not to vomit.

"About 3,200 I think. She died just recently."

I suddenly turn over to the other side of the bed and vomit the contents of my stomach into a waste bin. I spit a few times into it to get the taste out of my mouth after I'm finished and I hand Cora the waste bin. "That's why I don't want to eat."

She nods looking sickened and takes away the food and the waste bin.

The doctor comes in shortly after she leaves. "Hello Mr. Jackson. I just came to do a follow up on you."

"Great." I respond as he begins performing routine tests on me. "So doc. How long do you think I have left?"

He looks at me.

I nod. "Go ahead doc. I've come to terms with it. Just spit it out."

He sighs. "You're pretty much at your worst yet. Your body is rapidly burning itself out. You'll lapse into a coma by tomorrow. And from what I've seen your illness progresses quicker when you sleep, so you'll be dead before the week is over. Is there anybody you want me to call?"

"My friends. The ones who visited me the other day." I say quietly. "Also call Detective Sageaus get him down here. And… what the hell? Call Detective Vakarian for me too and put him on the phone so I can talk to him."

He nods. "I'll get right on it."

He leaves. I sigh. Life really is too short. I had an eventful life though. More stuff happened to me in these past few months than in my whole life before Rapture. And at least I'll die here in this universe where I have friends and status.

The doctor returns with a small communicator. He places it on my nightstand and leaves, closing the door behind him.

"Garrus?" I say.

Silence for a moment. _"Yeah I'm here."_

"Listen Garrus. I know we aren't on the best of terms-"

"_Listen, Splicer. I don't… I don't know if we should be talking…"_

I chuckle. "Give a dying man his conversation, Garrus."

Silence.

"I know we aren't on the best of terms. But I wanted you to know, that I don't hate you. I think you're awesome. And I wish you luck. That's all I really wanted to say. But… Man do I want to say more. Goodbye Garrus." I shut off the communicator.

I wish I could've told him about everything that'll happen. But I know that would be tampering with the Balance. Hell, I've already fucked it up pretty bad to begin with. Maybe it's better that I'm dying. So I don't get myself into trouble.

**11:45 PM April 2, 2182**

I am lying in bed staring up at the ceiling, when my door opens and Cora comes in. "Rob you have a visitor."

A visitor? Not many. Wonder who it is?

"Hi, Splicer." Alex says coming into the room. "The doctor called. He said you were dying. That you had until tomorrow before you lapsed into a coma."

I nod. "I'm afraid so."

"I came as soon as he called. Where's everyone else?" She asks taking a seat at the foot of my bed.

I shrug. "Not here yet I guess. Or… they actually hate me and are too busy having a party."

She looks shocked.

"It… was a joke I'm kidding." I say quickly. I should really choose my battles more carefully.

"Oh…" She looks down at her hands. "I thought it would be hard to see you like this. It is. And I know that I'll be sad when you… pass. But isn't that strange? We've only known each other for a few weeks. And yet I feel like… like I couldn't live without you. That's weird isn't it?"

Wow. I smile and think back to how I felt when she died for a second back during the attack. "Not that weird."

She looks comforted and continues. "I just… I just wanted to tell you that-"

I hold up a hand with some difficulty and stop her. "Don't."

After a long silence, she leaves.

I sigh. What a pleasant interaction. Hopefully my talks with everyone else go a little better.

**Later…**

"Rob." I look up at Cora. "More visitors."

I nod and Vaga and Nata come in.

"Hi guys. Where's Nelyna and Zero?" I ask as they take seats on my bed.

"Nelyna is working but she's going to come down here ASAP." Vaga says. He looks at Nata.

"Zero is in interrogation right now." She says a little sadly.

I frown. "He's interviewing a suspect or something?"

She shakes her head. "No… they found evidence that it was him that destroyed your helmet."

"What? What evidence did they find?"

"The helmet was crushed using biotics. And they found his DNA on it." Vaga says.

Oh my God… "Why would he do that?"

Nata shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine!" She sounds mad.

"Well… I'm glad you guys are here." I say smiling.

Silence stretches for a time, where no one wants to say anything. I'm living on borrowed time so I'll start. "Listen. You two… have been my… closest… friends…"

I suddenly feel all my energy ebb away and my vision fades to black.

**?**

_I fall through the flames of Hunger into the Dark. The Noise penetrates my being and I clutch at my ears to stem the flow of sound. But it doesn't help._

_I clench my teeth together to their breaking point from the sheer agony that I feel._

_Needles and thread fly from the dark and pierce and body from every angle. The threads string me up and threaten to rip me apart, I try to fight them, but they pull me into submission._

_Drops of my blood flow down the threads and into the dark. The threads grow tauter and whirl around, shredding me to pieces._

_I just put myself back together however and the pain of the process was even more excruciating than the reason for it. I fall to my knees coughing and quivering in pain._

_The Grim Reaper appears below me. "It is done. You are useless to us now. Die, slave."_

_The Noise crescendos rapidly. Compared to this new volume, the previous volume sounded pianissimo. This new volume just keeps growing and growing. I writhe in agony my mouth stretched open in a soundless scream._

_Or perhaps, it isn't soundless; the Noise may just be too loud to hear it._

_Bloody tears fall from my eyes and my vision darkens, despite the fact that I can see nothing in the Dark._

_But above the pain, above the Dark, above the Noise, is laughter. The Grim Reaper's laughter. But even above that is anger. My anger. My fury, my rage. _

_My scream of agony, turns to a roar of rage and hate that burns out the Noise and the Grim Reaper's laughter._

_The roar curds the Dark and crushes the Noise. The Grim Reaper flees from the Noise. My Noise._

_I rush forward before it can escape. I grab its throat. It looks so much smaller now._

"_What are you?" I roar at it._

_It screams in agony at the Noise. "We are the universe!"_

"_Your Name!" I roar. "Name yourself!"_

"_Verizazeim!" It screams back._

"_WEEEEAAAAKK!" something roars from below._

_The Grim Reaper's eyes shrink. _

_The Kraken appears in a sea of fire and ice below us, it's tentacles flailing out of the Dark._

_The Kraken's tentacles fly in my direction._

"_You want him?" I roar at the Kraken. "TAKE HIM!"_

_I throw the Grim Reaper with all my might into the maw of the Kraken._

_Everything disappears._

_And I am left. Alone. Alone, but alive._

I feel my cheek slide against something solid, slippery, cold, and wet as I try to pull myself up. The lower half of my body is bathed in cold water and my torso rests upon stone. And a dull ringing or buzzing in my ears worsens my headache.

But I feel numb to all this stimulus. My first thought is: I'm alive.

I slowly open my eyes.

It's dark, but not pitch black. My vision is illuminated by various light sources from around me.

I slowly drag myself out of the water and further onto the stone.

I'm in the middle of the lake on the Presidium. How the hell did I get here?

I look up.

I'm at the foot of the Mass Relay monument. How the hell…?

I look down at myself. I… I'm healed. The veins, the grey flesh, even the mark, they're all gone! Sure I only have a pair of boxers on, but I'm healed!

I feel my skin with glee and laugh happily. After my sensation of relief has passed I let my head fall back against the statue, a grin etched onto my face.

Flashing colorful lights blind me as they appear nearby on the ground. The lights are coming from C-Sec cars. 8 or 9 officers come out and start spreading out, searching the area with omni-tool lights. They're in their regular uniforms but I can see a large red cross in a white circle on the chests.

A few run up to the bridge at the edge of the statue. They shine omni-tool lights down at me. "There he is!"

"Mister Jackson!" I hear one officer shout. "Are you okay? What are you doing out here?"

I look up at him then I look around at my surroundings. "I-I… I don't know. I woke up here."

"Well, we're glad you're out of your coma. You need to come with us back to the hospital." He says.

"Alright… How am I going to get off here?" I shout up at him.

"Just wait there. We'll pick you up in the car."

I nod and the officers run off.

A few moments later a C-Sec cruiser hovers down next to the statue and the door opens. An officer gestures for me to hop in.

I hop in and an officer hands me a towel and sits me down on a seat.

I sigh and quickly fall asleep.


	20. Chapter 20 Welcome Home

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

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><p><strong>AN: A quick recap is in order, yes?**

**After being arrested by C-Sec for being at the scene of Barla Von's murder, I am interrogated with my new friend, the asari Consort's greeter Nelyna. After being released I return to the station to retrieve my possessions, however, I quickly discover that my helmet is missing and that I speculate that Garrus Vakarian took it in order to implicate me with several unsolved murders.**

**On my way to retrieve my helmet, the Blue Suns make a completely unprecedented attack on the Citadel. I manage to escape the Presidium accompanied by Executor Pallin, Captain Anderson, Nelyna and her sister Saphyria, Ambassador Udina, and my two new friends C-Sec homicide detective Zurin "Zero" Sageaus and C-Sec analyst Alex Silva.**

**Together with the help of new arrival Garrus, he, Pallin, Zero and I manage to rally the remaining C-Sec officers into an offensive against the Blue Suns that ends up succeeding and will come to be known as the Battle of the Suns. With the help of the turian military, the Blue Suns threat is wiped from the Citadel.**

**Things were good. However, hours before a commemoration ceremony for everyone who fought in the name of the Citadel and the Council, I am afflicted with a bizarre and terminal illness. Soon after, I am arrested for 7 accounts of murder.**

**At the trial, I am cleared of all charges because the evidence was destroyed, supposedly by Zero. My illness grew worse and worse, until I lapsed into a coma, from which I should not have awoken.**

**However I have awoken at the foot of the Mass Relay monument, my affliction cleansed. And now… now I'm just glad to be alive.**

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><p>"<strong>Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be."<strong>

**~Daniel J. Boorsten~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 20: Welcome Home<strong>

**9:39 PM April 13, 2182**

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><p>"Astounding. Simply astounding." My salarian doctor says staring at my test results. "Your malady, completely wiped from your body. Ironic."<p>

"What is?" I ask absently, a wide grin on my face.

"I told your friends just yesterday that you would die today. You were completely far gone. There was no hope. Suppose I was wrong."

Fuck yeah you were wrong! "You called it like you saw it doc. How long was I in the coma?"

"Almost 11 days." He responds checking my pulse and taking my temperature.

"You thought I wouldn't last a week after I went into that coma." I say with a smug smile.

He shrugs. "Your immune system is truly astounding.

Why yes… yes it is. "Can I go home now?"

"Of course. Would you like me to phone your friends for you? Have them come get you?" He asks opening his omni-tool.

Hm… "No. I think I'll walk."

I hop off of the bed and pull my shirt on. I'm wearing the clothes I came to the hospital in: a t-shirt, loose basketball shorts, and a pair of my comfiest running shoes. I give the doctor a handshake and leave the hospital.

Once I'm out I take a very deep breath. I know it's corny but I can't help it! I feel like a new man!

I start walking toward the Wards but I quickly break out into a run, a smile on my face. People recognize me as I run past, they smile, wave, looked surprised that I'm back from the dead.

I wave back, smile back. I can't wait to smile at and talk to people I actually know.

I run down to the tram that'll take me to the Wards. I hit the button and stop. Aw buzz kill.

That's when I notice two other occupants. A human woman and her husband or boyfriend.

I smile at them and the woman's eyes widen and a smile grows on her face. "Hey! You're Splicer!"

The husband frowns and squints at me. "Really?"

She nods. "Yeah! Didn't you watch the Commemorations on TV?"

"No, I was volunteering at the hospital remember?" He responds. Good guy.

"Oh yeah right. Anyways, can we take a picture with you?" She asks eager.

Aw, fans. "Sure."

I back up and put my arms over their shoulders as they take positions on either sides of me, their camera sitting on the railing facing us.

I give my best smile and feel genuinely happy about taking the picture. I wasn't really hot on the idea of being a "celebrity" before I got sick but now I'm in too good a mood to care about anything!

I shake their hands just as the tram slows to a halt. I wave goodbye to them and thank them for being friendly before sprinting out of the tram into the Presidium Proper toward the Shin Akiba district. It's a far run but hell I don't care.

I pass by certain locations like the Shrine of the Enkindlers and the Vol-Clan Exchange. I even pass by the Transportation Hub building that holds the Market District and all the places Shepard visits in ME2 in the Mid-Wards.

I start running up a bunch of stairs that actually connect my Block to the Market District, 27 levels up. Thankfully the atmosphere raises here.

I reach the top of the stairs panting heavily. I can see my building from here. I start sprinting to it and I reach it without delay.

I run through the lobby, bumping into a few of my neighbors and Mr. Dalarian who yells "Your rent is late!" and up the stairwell and up 7 flights of stairs. The whole time I'm contemplating how I'll reveal myself to my friends.

Should I just burst in and yell, "Surprise!"?

Should I sneak in and open a soda to get their attention and play it off like I've been there the whole time?

Should I just see what happens?

I'll go with that. Let's see what happens.

I reach the 7th floor quickly and I jog down the hall to my apartment. The door is ajar, so I peek inside, panting.

Through the small crack I see Nata on the couch with somebody else and they're embracing. It's not Zero she's with, I think it might be Alex. I'd have figured Zero would be…

The door suddenly opens and Zero punches me in the nose.

"Oof!" I cry, my head snapping back. I clutch at my face and backpedal a little. So much for seeing what happens.

"I'll beat the shit out of you, you pervert!" Zero growls angrily. "We're mourning here! What the fuck is wrong with you?"

I hold up a hand, my other hand holding my bleeding nose, trying to keep him back. "Zero! Zero it's me!"

"I don't know who the hell you are, but you're going to regret coming here of all places you son of a bitch!" Zero glows with biotics and raises a fist at me.

I hold up both my hands to defend the blow but Nata runs up and pushes Zero back. "Zero, stop! He's just some sick idiot. He doesn't deserve that."

Oh God they think I'm a peeping tom don't they? Well… to be fair I was panting and peering through a door that was cracked open.

Alex runs up and stares at me fearfully, her eyes are slightly swollen and red from crying. I then see Alex is wearing my Bazooka Bubblegum shirt, the same one she borrowed from me all that time ago. How sweet…

I straighten and wipe the blood of my face. "Guys. It's me."

Nata glances at me but refocuses on Zero who's scowling with fury, a fire burning in his eyes.

Alex stares at me more. She squints to get a good look at me.

She takes a few steps forward and leans in close to my face and looks straight in my eyes.

"Alex! Get away from him!" I hear Zero yell.

Alex's bloodshot green eyes widen. "Splicer? SPLICER!"

She jumps up and wraps her arms around my neck, forcing me back slightly. I smile wide. "Hi Alex."

Nata runs up and looks at me very carefully. She gasps and hops up and down in excitement. "Jackson!"

Keeping one arm around Alex, I use the other to pull Nata into a hug. "Hey Nata."

Zero rushes up with a towel in his hand and wipes the blood off my face. After it's gone he grabs my face and looks me in the eye. "SPLICER!"

He wraps his arms around all three of us and lifts us off our feet, laughing as he does it. Good times…

Zero puts us down and I release Nata and Alex drops back onto the ground. Alex wipes her eyes of tears, a smile on her face.

Nata stomps angrily on the ground in frustration, holding her hands in front of her face. "Ah! This damn mask! I can hardly see!"

I can see tears flowing freely from Nata's glowing blue tinted eyes because they glow for a second before they fade. Ah that's cool!

Zero isn't crying (thankfully) but he looks happy. "What the hell! You're… you're not sick! Yesterday you were all veiny and grey and stuff! Now you look perfectly healthy! Well, except for the busted nose… sorry about that by the way."

"It's cool, it's healing." I say noticing the burning sensation on my face. "And I don't know… I woke up on the Mass Relay monument and… I don't know but I was completely healthy."

Alex laughs and smiles. "You're so weird."

She hugs me again and I smile. "It's good to see you guys. Where's Ram and Vaga and Nelyna? I want to see them too."

Nata shakes her head. "Vaga is taking your supposed death worse than we are. He's at his place, working his way through his bar. And I think Ram is at his place. I don't know how he's taking it."

"Nelyna isn't taking very well either." Alex says. "I tried talking to her yesterday, you know, to say her goodbyes to you? Well she didn't answer the phone. So I called her work and they said she hasn't shown up for work in three days. She must've really cared about you."

I flashback to our… moment at the hospital. Yeesh… "Well who should I see first?"

"We can just call them, you must be tired." Alex says.

I guess… seems nicer to go see them in person. But now that she mentions it, I am pretty beat. And damn am I starving! "Alright. Can you guys call them? I'm starving!"

"We know you… just said that." Zero says with a frown.

Damn. "Thanks you guys."

I walk into my apartment. Wow the place is spotless. "Hey who cleaned?"

"Ram." Nata says taking a seat on the couch again. "He came by yesterday and started cleaning for some reason. If I had to guess it was because he ran out of stuff to clean in his house."

I chuckle. "Yeah that sounds like him. Alright, who's calling who?"

"I'll call Nelyna." Alex volunteers.

"I'll call Vaga." Nata says.

Zero sighs. "Guess that leaves me with the krogan."

I laugh. "Just be glad he's a bad krogan."

I hope it doesn't seem insensitive or something if I don't call them myself. Or do it in person. Oh well.

"Jackson." Nata says. "Vaga wants to talk to you."

I nod and she transfers the call to my omni-tool. "What's up, Vaga?"

He chuckles. _"Alright. Quit fucking with me. Who is this?"_

Damn he sounds wasted. "It's me. I'm alive. The doctor was wrong."

"_No… no…"_ Ew sounds like he's crying. _"Stop it. Just quit fucking with me."_

Vaga always seemed like such a stable drunk too. He must be completely smashed. "I'm not fucking with you Vaga. I didn't die. I'm perfectly healthy."

"_Seriously?"_

I nod even though he can't see me. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"_Oh… Okay… I'll uh… Really? Wow! Hey we should celebrate! Come over to my place tomorrow, I'm throwing a little get together!" _

A party? For me? "Really Vaga?"

He chuckles. _"Yeah!"_

"Oh… wow! Nobody's ever thrown me a party before!" I say excitedly. "Thanks Vaga!"

He starts laughing. _"Ha, ha, ha! Ah… That's pathetic… Anyways come by here at like… 9 PM tomorrow. See ya."_

Wow… aw man. He's so drunk he's going to forget isn't he?

"Forget what?" Nata asks.

Goddamn inner monologue… "Vaga is elated. He's wants to throw a party for me tomorrow at 9."

"Oh cool!" Nata giggles excitedly.

I scoff. "Who said you could come?" I can physically see her disappointment mount. "I'm kidding."

She nods. "I thought so."

"Jackson." Zero says. "Ram is throwing a tantrum I can hear him breaking stuff. What should I do?"

"Transfer the call to me." I say panicked. If he's breaking stuff it must be bad. I never thought he'd do that in a million years.

Zero transfers the call.

"Ram? Ram calm down!" I yell over the noise of his rage.

"_Lies! All lies! My best friend is dead! NO!"_ I hear some glass shatter and the sound of splintering wood. Best friend? Really?

"Dammit Ram! I'm alive you idiot! Now pull yourself together you pathetic sack of pyjak meat!" I yell into my omni-tool.

The sound of breaking objects stops and I hear Ram gasp. _"Splicer? Is that you?"_

"Yeah it's me. Now calm the fuck down." I say annoyed. He's such a drama queen.

"_You're alive… Oh… Oh no! Look at what I did! There's dirt and debris everywhere! Sorry, I'd love to chat but I have to clean!"_ Ram cuts the call and I chuckle.

I wonder how Nelyna is doing. "Hey, Alex, how's it going with Nelyna?"

She nods. "Pretty good. I think she's coming over."

I nod. "Alright sounds good. If you guys need me I'm going to be in my room."

I go into the kitchen and grab some random scraps of food. I really need to go grocery shopping sometime, the Blue Suns attack left my fridge barren and it doesn't look like anyone's bothered to shop for groceries since then.

I take all the food and a can of Topari into my bedroom. Now is as good a time as any to do a little work.

I set my plate down on my desk and take a seat. First I think I'll do some investigating as to why my Fast Healing tonic seems to fail so miserably sometimes.

* * *

><p><strong>11:14 PM April 13, 2182<strong>

Oh! That makes sense! Sort of…

My Fast Healing tonic has a sort of charge effect, like a shield. The more I have to use it, the less effective it becomes at healing injuries.

So in other words, if I get shot, Fast Healing will repair all damaged tissue, repair or even replace ruptured organs. However, the more major injuries that I sustain, the more the tonic becomes selective of injuries. At that point it'll only heal injuries that it is capable of healing, like bruising, cuts, grazes, etc.

Fascinating… Well I suppose it was dumb of me to rely on Fast Healing out right. I guess I should start carrying medi-gel with me. I'll go pick some up tomorrow. Damn! If only I knew how to make that cell stim serum in the medkits! Then I wouldn't need medi-gel at all! Though… I don't really like using the medkits because the serum accelerates your cell reproduction and actually lengthens your lifespan. I know that sounds like a good thing but… I already feel not human as it is! Based on how many of those I've used in the past I'd say I'll live to at least 200! I don't want to live that long! I'll be all old and useless by then. I already feel like a freak and a spectacle without adding to the fact that I'll live to be twice as old as most people.

My best option is to only use those medkits in emergencies… let's see I have… 5 left.

My door opens and before I can look up at the new comer I am tackled to the ground.

"You're alive! Thank the Goddess!" Nelyna screams in happiness, holding my face and planting kisses on it.

I groan in discomfort.

"What's wrong?" She asks concerned.

"Your knee landed on my special parts…" I say in a voice raspy with discomfort as I point downward.

"Oh! Sorry." She says getting off me and helping me to my feet.

Though I am still bent over in pain, I give her a hug and a smile. "Hi Nelyna. It's good to see you."

"Thank the Goddess you're better, Splicer! How did that happen?" She exclaims.

I shrug. "I don't know. First I was in the hospital saying my goodbyes to Nata and Vaga, and next thing I know I wake up at the foot of the Mass Relay monument on the Presidium and I'm completely healthy. The doctor said my malady is completely gone from my system. You have no idea how happy I am to see all you guys again!"

Nelyna smiles. "Well I'm glad you're okay. I'm sorry but I have to go. The Consort must be very displeased with me and I must go apologize. We should do something though."

I nod. "Absolutely. Vaga offered to throw a party for me tomorrow, you're welcome to come."

"O-Oh. Yeah! I'll be there!" She says quickly leaving the room.

Odd. I could've sworn I detected disappointment there for a second. Oh well.

I sigh and take a seat at my desk again. Let's see… what to do now? I'm not sleepy at all, I feel wide awake. Hm… well… I have enough ADAM to do a little experiment that I've been cooking up in my head for a few weeks now. I've had ideas for plasmid concepts but I've never made a plasmid before so this will be a total experiment. Hopefully I can program the proper code into the ADAM's genetic map.

* * *

><p><strong>A Few Hours Later…<strong>

Well that should do it… I don't know if this'll work but hopefully I got it right.

I pick up the syringe containing my brand new plasmid and I inject myself with it.

Alright now it's only a matter of time until I can use it. If I did it right then the effect should be awesome.

I'm about to stand and get ready for bed when my terminal starts beeping, signaling me that I have a new message. A message? Oh! I must have a new job from somebody. I bought this terminal and made an extranet site advertising this terminal's contact information just for job offerings. Wow this person must be loaded. I deliberately put a high price on jobs to limit the number I receive.

I open it, it's from somebody named Armathis Filk, it says:

_To: Splicer_

_From: Armathis Filk_

_Subject: DON'T REPLY Pinch_

_Hello Splicer._

_I know you don't recognize the name, but it is me Pinch. This is one of my many aliases. To prove that it is me: You said that you did kill 5 of those people but 2 of them you didn't because you never killed any quarians or volus. That enough evidence?_

_Anyways for future reference here's a list of all my aliases:_

_Armathis Filk_

_Geos Thirn_

_Tezzin Kilg_

_Deverin Maas_

_Orig Hess_

_Mark Johnson_

_The Shadow Broker appointed me as your "Handler" shall we say. If there are any jobs that he needs you to do, he'll tell a representative that'll tell a broker that'll tell me, and I'll pass it on to you. Simple._

_I am glad to hear that you are out of the hospital. I tried to come visit you, but you had already left._

_Onto business. Remember that sensitive matter we had discussed? Well we need it taken care of soon._

_A human bartender named Jeffrey Choi who works at Mex's Club, a high class gentlemen's club on the Bachjret Ward, is fronting a Red Sand dealership for the owner, a turian named Therimex "Mex" Uthakian. Jeffrey also works as an information dealer for the Shadow Broker. As you can imagine, his business on multiple fronts has made him very wealthy. Recently he came into contact with representatives of the Blue Suns secretly for unknown reasons. Now he's been meeting with them weekly at Mex's. All we could learn is that he cut ties with the Shadow Broker for no particular reason after he started meeting with the gang. We want to know why. The Shadow Broker also speculates that Mex is somehow involved._

_Your job is to investigate what is going on at the meetings. Listen in on a meeting and break into Mex's office to find any useful information. Don't kill anyone. Yet. And don't be seen. _

_After that's done, report back to me at Teyseri Point Park and tell me what you've learned. The next meeting is taking place a week from today on Saturday April 21st at 10:00 PM._

_We expect the best from you. _

_Depending on what is going on, you will be paid up to 100 times your standing rate posted on your extranet site if you do well and complete the job in its entirety. We normally don't pay so much but this is a sensitive situation, simply because it involves the Blue Suns._

_Good luck._

I read the 2nd to last sentence over a few times. 100 times my standing rate? That's 1,500,000 credits! Jeez Louise… Good timing too. My hospital bills have cut my account down to around 700,000 credits. I need to do well on this one. That million I got from the first job lasted me a long time. And if they keep sending me jobs than well… I think I'll be set for life!

Let's see… I have a week until the meeting. I think a visit to Tyrannax is in order. And a little reconnaissance never hurt.

I stand and stretch. Ah… I'm feeling good! Can't wait for that party too! Still not tired though…

Maybe Tyrannax is actually still up?

I open my omni-tool and contact Tyrannax.

After a few short seconds the line picks up. _"Jorgal Tyrannax, how may I help you?"_

He sounds wide awake as well. "Tyrannax, it's me, Splicer."

"_Splicer, glad to hear you're well."_

"Thanks. Listen, my armor's due for a little tune up, when are you available?"

"_I'm ready and able now. Just bring it over and we'll discuss what you need." _Wow… never a dying moment with my crew.

"Thanks Tyrannax. I'll see you soon." I respond.

I grab my pea coat and pull on a pair of jeans. At this hour it's bound to be cold out. Don't want to go and get myself sick again now do I?

I grab my armor case and check to see if the pieces are all inside. Everything's accounted for. Except for my helmet of course. I close the case and toss it on my bed.

I go to my secret weapons locker and grab my new pistol, the one I got off the Blue Suns merc that I beheaded with that disc thingy… which actually gives me an idea.

I holster my pistol in my leg holster and grab my armor case.

Trying not to make any noise I sneak out of my apartment undetected. As I exit my apartment I see Alex, Zero and Nata had all fallen asleep on the couch. Cute, it's like a weird little alien family.

I notice the elevator is working again, so I take it down to the lobby which is abandoned.

I quickly exit the building and hail a cab at the nearby taxi terminal.

After a long ride to the Teyseri, I am forced to walk another quarter kilometer to Tyrannax's workshop.

I head inside and find Tyrannax sorting large metal cases that are stacked up to the ceiling in his house.

He looks at me as I enter. "Splicer."

"What're you doing?" I ask staring up a stack of cases.

"Sorting out all this armor and weapons. I took some boys and looted the Blue Suns Field HQ after C-Sec cleared it out during the Battle." He says as he pushes some crates aside to make a path to his basement workshop. "Come on let's take a look at that armor."

"I never figured you to be the kind of guy too loot his product." I say following him downstairs.

"Don't insult me." He scoffs. "I'm not selling that slag. I'm going to melt em' down and scrap em' for parts. Just cheaper to not have to fabricate new under-armor suits and ceramic Dura-plating."

He sweeps a bunch of stuff cluttering a table off onto the floor and motions for me to hand him my case.

"Not the most efficient way to organize your stuff." I say handing him my armor and staring at the pile of stuff on the floor.

He shrugs and dumps my armor out of my case onto the table.

"Customer etiquette isn't on top of your list either, huh?" I ask as he tosses my armor case onto a pile of discarded junk.

He shrugs again. "I work in the business of battle. Not much etiquette in blood."

I nod. "Fair."

"So what did you want me to do? Other than a routine repair job? Any upgrade you had in mind?" He asks as he separates pieces of armor that need repairing with ones that aren't damaged.

"I had a few ideas. Could you install magnetic clamps or something in the boots?" I ask holding up one of the greaves.

"There're already are mag clamps in the boots. You just haven't used em'." He says, lifting up a movable plate on my greave to show me a cylindrical apparatus.

"Really?" I say poking the apparatus. "How do I use them?"

"Tell your VI to turn em' on." He responds. I detect a hint of sarcasm there. I'm the master at sarcasm don't try and fool me with your deep threatening voice.

I sigh. "Thanks. Okay well I also want… like sound dampeners or something for the boots. You know things that quiet my footsteps."

That'll be extremely important in this upcoming job.

Tyrannax nods. "I can do that. Easily. What else?"

I lift up my shirt and show him my impalement scar. "I need more protection for in between the plates, I need armor on my stomach and that under-armor suit needs to be stronger. Bullets and knives cut it like butter."

"No problem." Tyrannax says nodding. "I can get you a new under-armor suit that'll rival quarian enviro-suits in protection and I can add scale plates in between the plates to add protection that won't impede your movement too much. It won't be cheap though."

"Have I asked how much this'll be yet?" I ask rolling my eyes impatiently.

"You have more ideas?"

"I sure do. I need a new helmet, but is there any way that you can make one that looks like this and does what this one does?" I ask showing him an old clip.

He shakes his head. "Can't do anything like that yet. The supplies I'll need for that would have to be custom made. It could take weeks for everything to come together for me to build it."

I nod. "Order them then. I want this made. Doesn't matter if it takes a long time."

He shrugs. "Alright, I'll get it done. Anything else?"

"I need new guns. My current ones feel obsolete. I took a pistol off a dead Blue Suns and it's far stronger than my old one." I say taking my pistol out of its holster and handing it to him.

He examines it and grunts. "Hm. Not bad. I haven't had a chance to examine any of their guns yet but this isn't bad. I can repaint it for you and add a laser targeting too if you like. What do you want for your new guns?"

I think over all the options. "Okay. Well I want a new shotgun and a new assault rifle. Write this down because I'm going to get real specific. I want the guns to match my armor in color and design. I want the shotgun to have a decent rate of fire and I want it to have very low spread. I like to have good range for my guns…"

He nods and doesn't write anything down. "Got it. And the assault rifle?"

"I want a semi auto rifle. What it lacks in speed I want it to make up for with power." I say thinking back on the Mattock from ME2. "I want it to be able to load Armor Piercing ammo too."

He nods thoughtfully. "That I can do. This will be truly spectacular."

An idea… a brilliant idea suddenly comes to my mind. I open my omni-tool and search another old video. "Can you make me a custom weapon?" I ask as I type.

He scratches his scales. "Perhaps. Depends on what kind of weapon it is."

"I want it to do this!" I say showing him the clip.

He shakes his head. "I definitely can't make anything like that. I can't make anything that'll disintegrate something."

My heart sinks… aw. I wanted a data disk! Eh… well I guess I can't have everything. "Alright how much?"

He shrugs. "Alright. I think this'll all come around to… 34,000."

"Whoa that's way more than normal." I say as I open my omni-tool.

"I got a lot of work to do. And you want that special helmet thingy." He says impatiently.

I transfer the payment. "I need it ASAP too."

"I'll have the armor upgraded and ready by Thursday. The helmet and weapons will take a while longer."

"Good. Thanks Tyrannax." I say leaving. He needs a better place of business. Maybe I could call in some favors for him?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright guys. Thanks again for reading. Hope you liked it. The next chapter is great, you'll all just love it. I know this one was mediocre at best but the story improves dynamically from here on.**

**Exciting news! I've decided to add, yes add, chapters to part one of my story! Don't fret, it'll be awhile before it's added and I have a **_**pretty**_** good idea of what I'm going to do. Of course it'll take a while to write and plan and whatever. But what I can tell you is it'll be another multi-part event up to 5 parts and the focus will be OC development. It'll be Ch. 25-29 and it's going to be good. So if you guys like the story, congrats! You get 5 more chapters of action and a 37 chapter story! If you're me, then sucks to be you! You have to write 5 more chapters and get to work on the sequel of the story! Oh right… By the way I've made very, **_**very**_** little progress on Massive Shock 2. Sorry.**

**Whatever. It needs more thought. Thanks for reading you guys. Also I'm having an open beta call for anyone interested. I'll take up to two betas preferably one who's a girl to give me advice on romantic stuff in my story. As my beta, you'll get special privileges like the freedom to read my **_**entire**_** story.**

**Anyways. Thanks for reading, I hope you continue reading, and if so, I'll see you next Tuesday.**


	21. Chapter 21 Carpe Diem

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: I got one hell of a chapter for you! And it is looooooong. It's 22 pages of fun. This is going to blow your freaking minds, guaranteed. Though you've probably all seen this coming. But maybe not in such an amazing way. And I'm really happy how this turned out. **

* * *

><p>"<strong>Only passions, great passions can elevate the soul to great things."<strong>

**~Denis Diderot~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 21: Carpe Diem<strong>

**11:17 AM April 14, 2182**

* * *

><p><em>Beep. "Hey Vaga! It's Jen! Can't wait for that party tonight! See ya!"<em>

_Beep. "Hey Vaga, it's Maerin. Thanks for inviting me to the party, I'll be there!"_

_Beep. "Vaga, it's me Jackson. You were pretty hammered last night are you sure you can put together a party in a day? Call me back."_

_Beep._ Vaga slams his fist onto his answering machine to get it to stop. He blearily opens his eyes, but immediately closes them when he is blinded by the bright lights coming from outside.

"Blinds!" He yells at the room.

The room darkens as the windows are covered. Vaga opens his eyes and looks around the room. _Wow, I must've drunk a lot…_

He gets up from his couch and stumbles over to the bathroom, where he proceeds to puke his guts out.

With a sigh, Vaga slumps back against the wall. His omni-tool lights up, the sudden bright light worsens his migraine but he pushes past it and opens his new message.

_Vaga,_

_Wanted to make sure you're alright, you haven't called me back yet._

_Jackson_

"Call him back for what?" Vaga mumbles to himself.

He stands and stumbles back downstairs to his answering machine. Oh yeah.

Vaga sighs and takes a seat on the couch. _Come on! Think Vaga! What did Jackson want you to call him about? I could've sworn I heard him say something on the answering machine but I can hardly remember anything…_

Vaga shrugs and decides that he'll just call him and hope for the best.

He selects Jackson from his list of contacts and waits for the line to pick up. After a few short seconds he answers…

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Vaga? Hey what's up?"

Vaga groans and makes a gurgling noise. _"You called about something?"_

I frown. "Uh yeah just making sure you were up for throwing that party?"

I hear Vaga make a choking noise. _"Uh, yeah! It's all good!"_

"Oh cool!" I say with a smile. "I'll see you at 9 then."

"_Uh yeah. Bye."_

I hang up. Alright! I'm super excited for Vaga's party! I can't wait! Nobody's ever thrown a party for me before so I'm really eager to see what'll go down and who'll be there.

I wonder what I should wear? Should I wear my suit like I did for the Commemoration ceremony? Or should I just go casual?

* * *

><p><strong>1:18 PM April 14, 2182<strong>

A knock at my door tears my attention away from my reflection momentarily. "Come in."

Alex enters and mumbles something I didn't hear.

I glance at her. "Huh? I didn't catch that."

"I asked what you're doing." She says examining the mountain of rejected clothing on my bed.

"I'm trying on clothes to see what I should wear for the party." I say absently, holding various ties up to my collar.

"You have a lot of clothes for a guy who just came here a few months ago." Alex points out taking a seat on a clear spot on my bed.

"I like clothes." I mumble. "What do you think? Should I go black tie? Or blue tie?"

"I think-"

"I like the black one." I say holding it up to my collar.

She chuckles. "I don't think you should wear a tie. Here let me help you pick something out."

She topples the mountain of clothes and starts digging. She takes out a dark blue shirt and tosses it to me. "Here put that on under your jacket."

I take off my jacket then the white dress shirt and put on the dark blue one and put my jacket back on.

I check my reflection from multiple angles. "I don't know… It's a little too… clubby."

"Alright…" Alex says covering a smile with her hand. "I don't really have anything to wear either, want to go shopping?"

I smirk. "Sounds like fun."

"Cool! Wow I don't have any guy friends that like this stuff." She says hopping off the bed.

I shrug. "I'm a special kind of guy… I'm not gay."

"I know." She says with a humorous smile.

"Okay. Good. Anyways, I got to get changed." I say gesturing to the door.

"Oh okay." She says sitting back down on the bed, watching at me.

No way! I laugh. "Are you serious?"

"No. Just kidding." She hops back up and leaves the room.

She's so freaking weird. I grab a red V-neck that makes my collarbone and arms look good and a pair of dark semi-skinny jeans.

After I am done changing I grab a pair of sunglasses and check my mohawk which is meticulously shaped to perfection as usual. I go out into the main room where Alex waits, chatting with Nata.

"Ready?" I ask grabbing a can of Topari from the fridge.

"Yeah!" She says getting to her feet.

Nata looks quizzically at me. "Where're you guys going?"

"Clothes shopping for Vaga's party." Alex says. "Want to come?"

Nata glares at her and I laugh.

"Fine sorry." Alex says turning to me.

"Just kidding." Nata says with a giggle. "I'd love to come, but I have to go out with Zero."

"Ooh." Alex says with a smile. "How's it going between you two?"

Nata nods. "Great! He's so cool! He's so sweet but he's also tough! You know, Jackson."

"Oh yeah. I know." I say with a nod while reminiscing on the few occasions I've seen Zero go total badass. Like when he biotic punched that Blue Suns Captain's head off. Or just yesterday when he thought I was a peeping tom and punched me in the nose.

"That's great." Alex says with a smile. "Anyway, we should go."

I nod and put my sunglasses on. "See you, Nata."

* * *

><p><strong>An Hour Later…<strong>

"What do you think?" Alex asks modeling a classy and sophisticated dress for me.

"I like it." I say sincerely. "Though I think you should wear black shoes instead of sneakers with that."

"Hm…" Alex says turning to the mirror again. "Yeah I think you're right. I look kind of short in this dress. Do you think stilettos would make me look taller?"

"I think it would help." I say sarcastically.

She feigns anger. "Shut up."

I stand and stretch. "Well I'm hungry. I haven't eaten yet have you?"

She shakes her head. "No. Let me buy this then we can go. Wait! Shoes!"

I roll my eyes. "Alright which shoes you want?"

"Black stilettos." She responds going back into the dressing room.

I sigh and go out into the store for the fourth time.

I walk back up to the asari attendant lady. "Excuse me. Sorry to bother you again."

"It's no trouble!" She says cheerfully.

A little over the top but fine. I smile. "Thanks. Could you get me a pair of black stilettos? Size 5 1/2, human."

"Absolutely." She says leading me over to a wall filled with shoes. "Um… How about these?"

She shows me a pair of shoes.

"Nah they should be open toed." I say scratching the back of my head.

She smirks. "You sure know what your girlfriend likes. She's a lucky lady."

"Oh! No, she isn't my girlfriend!" I say quickly then laughing awkwardly to try and play it off. "I'm single. I'm just a good friend of hers."

"Oh?" She says staring at me.

I sigh. "I'm not gay."

"Oh…" She says staring at me.

I frown. "Shoes?"

"Oh! Sorry." She says blushing.

I roll my eyes. I should try harder to look uglier. But… Gah… it's such an effort.

She shows me another pair of shoes. "How about these?"

"Perfect." I say smiling. "Thank you."

She hands me the shoes and take them back to the dressing rooms. I go up to Alex's room and knock on the door.

She opens it and I hand her the shoes.

"Oh! These are gorgeous!" She says placing them on the floor and putting her feet in them. "That attendant sure has good taste."

I nod. "She sure does."

Heh, double entendre. I love them.

"Really? I love them too." Alex says looking at her shoes.

Eh… Damn inner monologue. "Cool. Let's go buy it."

She nods and goes back into the dressing room. After a few moments she's back in her t-shirt and short shorts outfit. I really like her retro look. It's refreshing from everything I see nowadays.

We go out to the attendant. "Hi! Are you ready to purchase?"

"Yes." Alex says handing her the clothing.

The attendant scans it with an omni-tool. "Okay, that'll come to… 6,381 credits."

Damn the Capacitor Chestplate in ME2 is cheaper… I think. Damn! It's been so freaking long since I played the game! I need some kind of refresher course or something… maybe…

"Oh…" Alex says disappointed.

I sigh and roll my eyes. God I hate to see a lady sad. "I got it."

I hand the attendant my silver credit chit.

"What?" Alex says shocked.

"I got it. Consider it a gift." I say smiling.

She looks almost outraged. "It was like 6,400 credits!"

"L'argent de Poche. Small change." Those French classes back in high school are paying off. Man I fucking hated that class…

"Damn, Splicer." She says taking the shopping bag from the attendant. "You must get paid a lot."

I shrug. The attendant gasps. "Oh Goddess! You're Splicer? I can't believe I didn't recognize you before!"

I sigh. Dammit Alex! Why don't you just use my name? Why is it that some people call me Splicer, while others call me Jackson? Why is it that nobody calls me Rob anymore?

"Wow! I can't believe you're here in person! Y-You're like a hero! You know what would make my day?" An endorsement? "I'd love to take a picture with you!"

I take off my sunglasses and offer a fake smile. "Sure whatever."

I hop over the counter and put my arm around the attendant causing her to blush. She holds her omni-tool up and snaps a picture of us, MySpace style.

"Thanks!" She says giddily.

"Let's get outta here." I mumble to Alex. Thankfully the store wasn't filled with people or I'd be getting assaulted right now probably. I'd hate to see how people react to Shepard, post geth attack. Scratch that, I'd LOVE to see how people react!

"Well, since you bought my dress, can I at least pay for lunch?" Alex asks jokingly.

I shrug. "Sure. I don't know many good restaurants around here so I'll leave it up to you."

"I know a great place!" She says excitedly. "It's just over here!"

* * *

><p><strong>A Few Moments Later…<strong>

"Pizza?" I ask raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah! And it's the best!" She says rolling her eyes up to the back of her head as she says it. Wow it must be good then. I learned that that's what girls do when they really like something. So far that theory has never been falsified.

"I'll trust you then…" I say nervously. "I've been eating primarily asari food for most of the time I've been here."

"Really?" She asks getting in line with me. "But it's so weird."

"I like it. What's weird about it?" I ask as we near the front.

"The color! It's a lot of blues and purples. Just weird." She says as we reach the front of the line. I laugh. Can't argue there.

"Hi, what'll ya have?" The… krogan says. Not sure how I feel about that.

"Two slices of the Hawaiian." Alex says. Eh… Hawaiian? Never tried it before… To be polite I'll keep my mouth shut and just eat it. How bad can it be?

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

"That was really good." I say without lying. I can't believe I never tried that before! Just goes to show how much I was missing out in 2011.

"I thought you'd like it!" Alex says happily. "Now let's go get something for you to wear."

I nod. "Alright. But I need to stop someplace first."

Alex shrugs. "Okay, sure. Where?"

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

"Yes? Can I help- Oh! It's you!" The old man who runs the Antiquities Store says cheerfully. "I saw you on the news. You seem to have made quite a name for yourself."

I smile; slightly surprised that he still recognizes me. My appearance has changed quite a bit since I last spoke with him. "Hi… I'm sorry I didn't catch your name the first time I was here…"

"John. John Ojukwu." He says still smiling. "Those guns you sold me fetched quite a hefty market from collectors."

Collectors? Oh… not the same ones. "How much did you get for them?"

"Nearly triple the price I offered you. Thank you for bringing them to me." He says happily.

"No problem." I say smiling. "Listen, I'm here because I'm looking for a particular object. It's very old and I doubt you'll have it but I hope you can point me in the proper direction."

He leans in interested.

"I need an IPod USB computer adaptor cable from around 2010. Do you know of anybody who has one I can purchase?" I say hopefully.

"Actually." He says leaning back. "I have one here."

No way! "Does it work?"

"Yes. It's in perfect condition despite being over 150 years old." He walks into the back room and after a moment returns with an IPod USB computer adaptor cable, exactly the kind I need, still in its box.

"That's perfect!" I exclaim excitedly. "How much for it?"

"Hm…" He looks very thoughtful. "Well… Normally I would charge a very large sum for this… but… I'll give it to you for… 5,000. Because we're friends."

I smile and hand him my credit chit, the same one he gave me back when I first arrived here. "Done."

He smiles and transfers the payment. He hands the credit chit back to me and boxes the adaptor cable in a fancy box. "Here you go" He says handing the box to me. "Please come back again."

I smile. "Thanks John. I won't forget this."

I leave with Alex.

She stares at the box confused. "You just blew 5,000 credits on a cable that won't even work with any modern tech?"

"I sure did!" I say excitedly.

"Oookay…"

* * *

><p><strong>8:03 PM April 14, 2182<strong>

I button up my jacket and take a look at myself in the mirror. Alex picked out a good outfit for me. Makes my ass look great.

It's a more modern suit. With a high collar black shirt paired up with a grey formal jacket and matching pants. All in all it's sort of fancy without going too far. Nice.

I hear the front door open then Nata's voice. "Jackson! Nelyna and Alex are here!"

I check my hair one last time before walking out into the front room.

"Wow. You ladies look great." I say raising my eyebrows at Nelyna and Alex.

Alex is wearing the outfit we picked out along with makeup, earrings, a silver necklace, and it looks like she neatened up her hair.

Nelyna looks just as nice in a high collar dress with a semi-short skirt. It's actually a Chinese style dress which is surprising. It's red with gold dragons and lilies on the front in traditional Chinese art patterns. She pairs the dress with a small black jacket. All in all she looks super awesome.

"Thanks, Splicer. You look good too." Nelyna compliments with a friendly smile.

"Thanks." I say, smiling back. "Alex helped me pick it out."

Nelyna smiles at her. "And I'm guessing he helped you pick that out?"

"He bought it for me actually." Alex says with a disbelieving chuckle. Guess she doesn't believe I did it either. Why did I do it again? Oh yeah. She said: Oh.

"Wow." Nelyna says looking impressed. "When do I get my present?"

I sigh. "Tomorrow good for you?"

She laughs. "You don't have to, Splicer. I make good money working for the Consort. I can buy my own stuff."

"Thank God." I say sarcastically. "I rented a car and it's up in the garage at the top of the building right now."

"Awesome!" Nelyna exclaims. "Where does Vaga live?"

"He owns a penthouse apartment on the Presidium." I respond absently.

"Wow." Nelyna says impressed. "He must have a lot of money."

I chuckle. "He sure does. His apartment has an atrium and a private landing pad."

"What does he do?" Nelyna asks sounding genuinely curious.

Nata snorts with laughter.

I stifle a laugh. "It's uh… best you don't know. Or better yet, ask him yourself."

Nelyna looks at Alex who shrugs. This is going to be funny.

"Shall we go?" I ask.

"Yeah." Nata says getting off the couch. "Do you know who's going to the party?"

I shrug. "Other than you guys no. Zero is… where is he by the way?"

"He's going there himself." Nata responds. "He had to go down to the station today about something."

I nod. I'm not sure who's going to be there. I invited Garrus, but he turned me down. I guess that's appropriate. I invited Pallin too but he said no. He didn't seem like a party guy to begin with. I didn't even bother to invite Ram. He doesn't like parties.

"Okay let's go." Nelyna says exiting the apartment again followed by Alex.

Nata hurries after them. "Wait for me, girls!"

I chuckle and exit the apartment, closing and locking the door behind me. I didn't know this until a few days ago but when there isn't anybody in a room the lights automatically shut off. Well how could I know that? Not like I know if the lights are off if I'm not in the room…

I quickly get into the elevator and get to the top floor, which houses the garage and shuttle hanger for my building. It's a large room, at least three stories tall, one side is similar to a parking structure while the other is a multi-level docking station for shuttles and small ships. The wall opposite to us is a large kinetic barrier to protect us from the vacuum.

I lead the ladies over to my rented car which is literally the first one I saw on the lot that was large enough for all of us. I really can't tell the difference between a luxury car and a normal one anymore. They all look the same to me.

"Nice car." Alex says examining the black car.

"Really?" I say surprised. "I picked the first one I saw."

"Well you picked a nice one." She says getting in.

Nelyna follows, and Nata takes the passenger seat. I get into the driver's seat and shut the doors.

After a few seconds of sitting in silence, Nata looks at me. "Well? Aren't we going anywhere?"

Damn. "Uh… yeah. I don't know how to fly one of these things…"

Nata throws her arms up into the air.

"How did you get it here then?" Nelyna asks.

"My VI has flying programs it flies for me. It's on my omni-tool… which I don't have right now." I say with a nervous smile. I must sound like an idiot. I feel the urge to face-palm but I fight it.

"Well go get it!" Nata yells impatiently.

"Alright! Hold your horses!" I say getting out of the car.

"What are horses?" Nata asks before I shut the door. I'll let Alex handle that one.

* * *

><p><strong>A Few Moments Later…<strong>

"Finally! What took you so long?" Nata asks as I get in the driver's seat and shut the door.

"I was gone... no more than three minutes." I say annoyed.

"You were gone twenty." Nata says incredulously.

… "Really?"

"Well we're late now." Nelyna points out.

I check the time on my omni-tool. Yeesh. Almost 10 minutes late already and it's going to take a half hour to get to the Presidium.

"SNAKE: Take us to Vaga Kotka's penthouse on the Presidium. Landing code: S-P-4-N-K."

"_Landing code confirmed. Have a nice day."_

The car takes off and flies toward the Presidium. Oh I'm quivering in excitement!

* * *

><p><strong>9:44 PM April 14, 2182<strong>

Oh my God.

Vaga really went all out.

As we approach his penthouse I can see spotlights waving back and forth and many, many tiny people having a good time.

As the car slows to a halt and hovers over a vacant spot on the packed landing pad, a small group of people rush to greet us from the atrium garden. Shit… media.

I get out of the car, followed by Alex, Nata, and Nelyna. I offer Nelyna and Alex each an arm which they take and I lead them toward the approaching group of reporters.

Damn… I just realized how I must look. I must look just like Bruce Wayne in the Dark Knight when he arrives at the party he's having for Harvey Dent. He comes in by helicopter and comes out with three dates. Of course Nata, Alex, and Nelyna aren't my dates but I must still look cool.

The first reporter to reach me is… ugh… Khalisah al-Jilani.

"Splicer!" She says snootily. "I'm glad to have caught you. Khalisah al-Jilani, Westerlund News. You still owe me that one on one interview."

I frown and continue to walk, forcing her to backpedal. "I've never even spoken to you before."

"Well how does it feel to be back from the dead?" She asks her camera-bot's light blinding me, seemingly ignoring my statement.

"I didn't die, Miss al-Jilani. But if you must know, I feel great." I respond, somewhat annoyed. It's probably just her. She's such a bitch to Shepard. Wonder why she's being at least amicable to me?

"Are you going to continue your work as a freelance mercenary, or did your recent brush with death serve you a wakeup call?" She asks stopping abruptly forcing me to stop walking as well, lest I crash into her sending her falling to the ground. Though the option is tempting, her camera-bot thingy is dogging me like a… dog.

"Excuse me?" I say a little angrily.

"Did your recent brush with death serve as a wakeup call?" She repeats, small smile on her lips.

I smirk. "I've had lots of brushes with death, Miss al-Jilani. I don't see why this would stop me."

"You said 'this would stop me' suggesting you're still sick. Are you?" She asks.

Fuck! Twisting my words! "No. I'm completely healthy and ready for action. Now if you'll excuse me I would like to attend my party?"

"One last question-" she starts.

"Not from you." I respond coldly.

The other reporter's faces light up and they all start raising their hands trying to get my attention. Oh look! Emily Wong! She's not a bitch.

I nod at her and she works her way to the front, shoving Khalisah out of the way, bringing a smile to my lips.

"One question." I say. "Make it count."

She gulps. "Emily Wong, Citadel News Net. Um… You have been causing quite a stir across the Citadel over the past few weeks. This party included. What do you have planned next?"

I smile. "Actually I plan on a little break from work. I'm going on a hiatus, if you will, for the time being. You see this has been a… well stressful couple of weeks for me."

She smiles. "Understandably so. When will we see you back in action?"

"I said one question. But fine… I'm not sure. We'll see won't we?" I say. "Now please make a path."

The reporters break apart, making way for me to get into the atrium, which is packed with people.

I get inside and some krogan bouncers close the doors behind me on the reporters. Damn this is crazy! There are people everywhere! There must be at least a thousand people here!

I frown at the reporters who look a little disappointed. Ugh… Why am I so nice?

"Girls." I say to my… heh, entourage. "Go ahead, I'll catch up."

Nelyna and Alex break off and move into the crowd of people to socialize. Nata is already gone, probably looking for Zero.

I turn to the bouncers. "Hi guys. Let the media in. But, tell them that no camera-bots or reporting allowed, alright?"

One krogan scoffs. "Asking the media to do no reporting?"

The other one chuckles. "That's like asking a salarian to chill."

I laugh. "Good one."

"Will do boss." The first krogan says.

He opens the doors, much to the surprise of the reporters. "Hey! Mr. Splicer says you are allowed inside. Only if you relinquish your camera-bots and omni-tools, which will be returned to you when you leave. You may not bother Splicer or any of his guests with stupid reporter crap. Understand?"

The reporters look excitedly at each other and nod. They all enter. Fuck… I should've said no al-Jilani. Oh well.

After everyone is inside I nudge one krogan. "Hey, keep an eye on that one." I point to Khalisah. "She's too much of a bitch to follow the rules."

He chuckles. "Gotcha boss."

I nod and worm my way toward Vaga who is standing on a stage with the DJ.

I hop up onto the stage and walk up to him with a huge smile on my face. "Vaga! This is crazy!"

He chuckles. "Glad you like it."

"I thought you were just going to have a small party." I say looking out at the crowd of people.

"Depends on your definition of small." He says with a chuckle. "Yours maybe 30 or 40. Mine is 950."

Holy hell! There are 950 people here? I don't even know any of these people! They all must be Vaga's friends.

Vaga opens his omni-tool and types a few commands into it. The music quiets and an image of the stage, more specifically him and I appears on several monitors scattered around the room. Uh oh… I'm going to have to make a speech aren't I? And my bullshit "I'm a man of few words…" one isn't going to cut it!

"Everyone!" Vaga calls out, his voice projecting through the speakers somehow. "The man of the night has just arrived! Everyone, please give a warm and loving welcome to one of my best friends, Robert Jackson! AKA Splicer!"

The room thunders with applause and cheers. I can't help but smile. Man I never thought I'd be in a spot like this.

The room quiets after a moment and all eyes fix on me.

I clear my throat. "Uh… thank you, everyone, for attending this party. I really wasn't expecting the outpouring of support from everyone while I was in the hospital. It was such a nice feeling seeing that mountain of cards and flowers taking up the corner of my room…" Pause for laughter… Alright not bad. "And I know that I couldn't have made it through that without the love and support of everyone here and not here today. Thank you." The room thunders with applause again. "Now let's get this party started!" I yell excitedly. The crowd erupts with cheers and my image disappears from the monitors and the music crescendos again.

I laugh and turn to Vaga. "How was that?"

"Not bad." He says. "The night is young and you have guests to entertain. Good luck."

Eh… It's going to be a long yet awesome night.

* * *

><p><strong>2:27 AM April 15, 2182<strong>

It's been one long fucking night. Yet the party is still in full swing! Vaga knows how to have a good time! Sure a few people have left but there's still at least 700 partygoers here. Those 250 who left are party poopers!

I laugh, mostly because I'm trying to be polite, at a rather tasteless joke made by a turian regarding a batarian and two volus.

I feel a hand on my shoulder.

I turn around and Vaga faces me. "Hey. I need to talk to you. Let's get a table."

Wow he sounds serious. That's a first. Wonder what could be going on. I follow him down to a small two person table in the corner of the room with a small fancy lantern thing in the middle of it for lighting and decoration and a white table cloth. Most of the tables are occupied. One is occupied by Nata and Zero who seem to be having a nice conversation. But Zero looks depressed for some reason.

We take a seat and a salarian waiter comes by. "Would you like anything to drink?"

I nod. "Uh yeah. Can you get me a rum and cola on the rocks?"

Vaga looks at me surprised then up at the server. "Usual."

"Right away." The salarian nods and scurries off toward the bar.

"Hey what's wrong with Zero?" I ask after the waiter is gone

"Hm?" Vaga looks over at him and Nata. "Oh. I think he got fired from his job."

"What?" I exclaim shocked. "Why?"

Vaga shrugs. "You'd have to ask him yourself. Anyways, you don't usually drink, much to my chagrin. What's different about tonight?"

"Well, nearly dying made me realize…"

The server returns and places our drinks in front of us.

"Damn that was fast…" I say taking a sip from my drink. "Anyways… Damn, what was I saying?"

"Nearly dying made me realize…" Vaga says waving a hand before sipping his weird tall turian tube thing filled with purple fluid.

I nod. "Oh right! Nearly dying made me realize that there are certain things that you can't get back. So you shouldn't let them pass you by. Tonight I figure, I should seize the day. Carpe Diem."

"Carpy what?" Vaga says confused.

"Carpe Diem. Seize the day." I say smiling. That's one of my favorite quotes. Even if the movie was kind of weird.

"Funny." Vaga says taking another sip of his drink. "That's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."

I frown. "What's going on, Vaga? You're acting weird?"

He chuckles. "It's about you."

"What about me?" I ask taking another drink. Wow this is good. Vaga's got a good bartender…

"I've noticed you've been acting strangely." He says with a smirk. "And I think I know why."

"Oh?" I say, perked up by his build. Why? Why?

"Yeah." He says smiling, his eyes bright. "I think you might be in love."

My heart does a backflip, cartwheel, and an artful pose at his words. "Really?"

He nods. "Yeah. I can tell."

I raise an eyebrow. "I act, in love?"

He shrugs. "Have you ever been in love?"

"I… I don't think so. Have you… ever been… in love?" I ask swirling my drink around, counting the ice cubes.

"Sure I have." He says with an uncharacteristic melancholy smile. "First day of the military academy. I was fifteen years old. I met a girl."

I smile. "Let me guess, you had reach, she had flexibility?"

"Huh?" He asks in total confusion.

I shake my head. "Go on. It's an inside joke."

"Oh. Well anyways. I was a nervous kid. I was never good with girls." He smirks at my look of disbelief. "I know. That is, until I saw her. I walked right up to her and said… well I said the right words. They just came out. I didn't get it for a while. Because before, every time I talked to a girl I liked, the words came out all jumbled and wrong."

I know that feeling…

"Well when I talked to her for the first time. Everything I said was right. Just right. But she was in love with someone else. So… I… backed off. After she died, I… well I never recovered. I tried to fill the gap with fame, money, alcohol, asari, humans, turians, salarians, quarians, and a couple of krogan. But I'm still aching." He looks down at his drink then back up to me, smile on his face but misery in his silver eyes.

What's he going for? "What's your point, Vaga?"

He chuckles. "My point. Is that, sometimes you can't let certain things pass you by. Or you'll lose them. And you can't get them back."

He nods at something behind me. I turn my chair around. Oh…

I turn back to him. "You're right, Vaga. I didn't know… Things are complicated. I- I wasn't sure if it was love or not. But now… I'm sure."

He chuckles and takes another sip from his drink. "Go. Don't hesitate. As you said: Carpe Diem."

I down my drink and take a deep breath. I slowly get to my feet. Carpe Diem.

I walk slowly, but determined. Things just seem to stay out of my path and I never lose pace but it feels like she's getting farther away.

I keep walking. And walking. I feel like I'll never get there.

"Excuse me Nelyna." I mumble.

She turns around and smiles at me excitedly. "Splicer! I've wanted to talk to you all night! Where have you been?"

"Uh… Here and there." I mumble.

"Come on! Let's talk in private." She says taking my hand.

She leads me back to the tables and Vaga smiles at me. I'm not sure if he's happy or making fun of me.

Nelyna sits down and pulls me into a seat across from her.

"So how are you?" She asks, without releasing my hand. Her hand feels very warm and soft.

"Fine." I mumble, nervously, anxiously. "You?"

"Good." She looks down and sighs. "Listen. I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Oh?" I'm trembling.

"Yeah…" She sighs again and looks up. "I wanted to ask if… if…"

"Nelyna." I interrupt her. "Sorry, but could we do this another time, maybe?"

"Huh?" She looks confused.

I pull my hand from hers. "I have something to do but I'll get back to you. I promise."

She nods. "Okay. Sure."

I walk back into the crowd. I don't worry about anything right now. I just focus on what needs to get done. But people keep getting in my way.

Finally I reach her.

"Alex." I say simply. Vaga was wrong, words fail me right now.

She turns around and smiles up at me. "Splicer. I was hoping to get to talk to you what's…"

She stops and her smile fades as she stares into my eyes, a look of realization on her face.

I place one hand on her waist pulling her closer, the other hand goes up and gently yet firmly cradles the side of her head. Her eyes alight with a mysterious, a new emotion, her full lips part slightly and a breath escapes her lips. I feel her hands on my back, pulling me in. I close my eyes and lean in…

Before Rapture, I was quite the Casanova. And I'd say I'm a pretty good kisser. I mean I get the job done. Relying on my past experiences and skill right now however, wouldn't help me show her how much I care.

For this, I threw all that out the window. For this I had to rely on something else entirely.

Instead I put all my passion, the one emotion that drives me most, the one emotion that allowed me to survive six years in Rapture, the one emotion that forced me to continue to rescue Little Sisters, the one emotion that allowed me to start a new life on the Citadel, the one emotion that kept the hope that I'll find my friends after Cerberus took them, the one emotion that kept me fighting the Blue Suns, the one emotion that got me a commemoration from the Council, the one emotion that allowed me to cheat death: Instead I put all my passion and all my emotion and all my being, into one perfect kiss.

Not even before Rapture, did I think I could ever be this happy.

This in love.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright! I hope you guys liked this chapter! It was hard to write but I am 100% satisfied with how it turned out! Tell me what you think of it!**

**I got a few Beta offers, but all from guys so far... Where are my female readers? Do I have any? I sure hope I do. If I don't I need to consider a serious style change. I'm still looking for a female beta so if anyone's interested... inquire please.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading. I hope you liked it. I'll see you next Tuesday!**

**Mockingbird79**


	22. Chapter 22 Just a Pinch

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

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><p>"<strong>Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a process. Working together is a success."<strong>

**~Henry Ford~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 22: Just a Pinch<strong>

**10:12 PM April 21, 2182**

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><p>I sigh…<p>

"_Splicer!"_ Zero exclaims over my comm, his voice slightly hushed. _"Keep your head in the game!"_

I jump. "Sorry Zero."

"_Cool it, Zero."_ Vaga says with a little humor in his voice. _"He's just thinking about his new girlfriend."_

I roll my eyes. "Hey guys, thanks for helping me out with this one."

"_No problem."_ Vaga responds.

"_I need the cash."_ Zero says matter-of-factly.

Poor Zero. It turns out he did destroy my helmet to keep me out of prison so that I could go to a hospital. After they found his DNA there they interrogated him and he confessed to doing it. They agreed to drop the charges against him because he helped save the Citadel but he had to be fired from his job. They couldn't drop the charges against me because I was being accused of 7 accounts of 1st degree murder. See the dilemma? Well after I got this job I offered Zero a third of my payout if he helped out. And if I do this job well and get paid my 1,500,000 credits then he gets 500,000 while I keep 1,000,000. Vaga didn't want any money. He does this because it's exciting.

"Still thanks." I say with a shrug.

"_Whatever."_ Zero says sounding somewhat annoyed. _"Just pay attention, the meeting is starting."_

I open my omni-tool and open the link to the listening device that Zero set up for me.

"_Mr. Choi?"_ I hear a very rough voice, a turian's I assume, say.

"_Yes. And you're from the…" _Jeffrey says.

"_Blue Suns."_ The turian says. Well that wasn't too hard.

"_Let's get down to business then."_ Jeffrey says. _"You brought the product this time? No more hype?"_

"_Yes."_ I hear something solid clatter on a glass table. _"Here it is. I warn you though, this is some serious shit."_

"Zero!" I say readjusting my seat on the roof of the building. "I can't see what they're slinging! What is the scan picking up?"

After a short pause, Zero sighs. _"The scans can't detect it."_

"What does that mean?" I ask confused.

"_That means that it's not in the database. In other words, it's an entirely new product, with a completely unique chemistry."_ He says sounding grim.

"_Sounds like my kind of stuff."_ Vaga jokes.

I frown. Strange.

"_What is this?"_ I hear Choi ask in confusion. _"It looks sort of like Red Sand…"_

"_Our new product, courtesy of our top chemists."_ The turian responds.

"_Smells… sweet. Like fresh laundry…"_ Jeffrey says sounding nervous.

"_Do you want it or not?"_ Another person who sounds human says threateningly.

"_Jada, please."_ The turian says impatiently_. "What do you think? Think you can make a market for this?"_

"_Maybe…"_ Choi responds. _"How much are you offering?"_

"_40,000."_ The turian responds.

"_Double it and I'll spread it around for you."_ Choi says snootily. _"This stuff is addictive right?"_

"_Yeah. Very."_ The turian says with a chuckle. _"And you've got a deal."_

"_Glad to do business."_ Choi says.

I hear footsteps, then a door closing. I close my omni-tool and jog over to the edge of the short two story building. I see two casually dressed people, one a turian, the other a human woman, exiting the building and walking towards the cab terminal.

I touch my throat mic. "Vaga, they're leaving, you ready to track them?"

_He chuckles. "Yeah. I'm waiting in my car."_

"Remember." I say drawing my Tracer Rifle. "3 car length distance minimum. Keep an eye on your omni-tool."

"_I can get fined for that you know."_ He says chuckling.

I aim the blocky Tracer Rifle, which is something I asked Tyrannax to put together for me at the last minute, and aim it at the pair walking to the cab terminal.

I wait for them to make a payment so I know which cab they're taking. The door to one opens and I look down the scope at the cab.

I cock the gun and fire one for the Tracer devices linked to our omni-tools onto the side of the cab. It sticks to the cab using a jelly-like adhesive. I can shut it off at any time, so after Vaga finds their destination, he can turn off the tracker so that it doesn't continue to track it.

"Vaga, it's on." I say touching my throat mic. "Are you receiving the signal?"

"_Yeah. I'm following now. Good luck you guys." _Vaga responds.

I walk over to another edge of the building that looks down over an alley where Zero is hiding.

I toss the Tracer Rifle down to him, which he catches with deft skill.

He then uses his biotics to send up a data spike that I can use to hack into Mex's terminal then store data. I crouch down and catch it as it floats up and attach it to my belt.

I straighten and walk over to a maintenance access shaft that I hacked open earlier. "Alright guys I'm going down"

"_Good luck, Splicer."_ Zero says. _"I'm packing up. I'll see you at my place."_

I close the comm and open the hatch to the maintenance shaft. I lower myself into it and start crawling down it.

According to some building scans, this shaft should lead to a small freezer room which is just down the hall from Mex's office.

Mex won't be in the club today so that is taken care of. However he has quite a security force guarding his establishment. The top floor, where Mex's office is, is patrolled by three guards, with two guarding the entrance to Mex's office.

Since I can't kill anyone, all I am armed with is my plasmids, fists, and a clip-fed Tranquilizer gun that Tyrannax put together for me. I haven't tested it yet but it looks pretty official, and I'm going to trust his skill. Though I am worried about the level at which he was complaining about making something that is non-lethal, so I'm afraid he might have upped the dosage of tranquilizer in the darts.

I round a corner and reach the end of the access shaft.

I hack the hatch above me and it unlocks without any trouble.

I open it carefully and peek around the room. It's clear.

I hop out of it and carefully close the hatch.

"SNAKE: Activate Sound Dampeners." I whisper.

"_Sound Dampeners active."_ SNAKE responds.

Small lights on my boots light up and I take a step to test it. Wow! Completely silent.

I start hopping up and down and stomping, trying to make noise, but the Sound Dampeners do their job.

Cool.

My lightened mood is dashed as a bottle topples to the ground from the top of a shelf. Apparently the Sound Dampeners don't stop the shaking my stomping makes.

I hear muffled voices from outside the freezer. Shit.

I roll behind a pile of boxes and draw my Tranq gun. The door opens and I peer around to see a human security guard coming in with his pistol ready.

"What is it, Jim?" I hear someone from outside shout.

"Nothing, looks like a bottle just fell." He turns to leave but I shoot him in the neck with the Tranq gun.

He flinches and passes out almost immediately.

Wow. Effective stuff.

I sneak over to him and drag his body into the freezer a little more. I check his pulse. Okay good, he's not dead.

I pull the dart out of his neck and I grab another bottle of booze and pour a little on him. I then place the bottle next to him. Now it looks like he was taking a little break.

"Jim?" Somebody outside says. "Where'd you go?"

I move next to the door and a turian comes into the room.

"Jim?" He walks over to the human's prone body. "What the?"

I grab the back of the turian's neck and simultaneously zap him with Electro Bolt.

He twitches and collapses. I drag him next to his buddy and leave some dextro-amino booze next to him.

I exit the freezer and peek down the hall. I can see the two guards, one turian the other a human, standing outside of the door to Mex's office and another guard, this one krogan, leaning against a wall looking bored.

Uh oh. I have a feeling my Tranq gun won't take out a krogan. I'm going to have to just sneak by him.

I exit the freezer and close the door behind me. I carefully approach the office, keeping an eye on the guards.

The krogan suddenly sighs and pushes himself off the wall. Shit! I duck into a small janitorial closet and wait for him to pass.

Just after he does I exit the closet again and walk down toward the office.

I take cover around a corner so they don't spot me.

One guard is clearly not interested in his job, that'd be the turian one. The other is actually looking up and down the hall.

"Hey, Lillik. Where's Jim and Haok?" The human guard says.

"Probably in the bathroom." The other says absently, examining his talons.

The human frowns. "Together?"

The turian shrugs. "Just cool it. They're here somewhere. If you care so much, go look for them."

The human shrugs. "Fine I will."

"Alright you do that. I'm going on break." The turian says leaving.

The human sighs and walks after him. Wow I didn't even have to do anything.

I quickly sneak down the hall and into Mex's office. Nice office. It's small, but really lavishly furnished, with one window on the opposite wall that overlooks the club.

I walk over to the terminal sitting on the otherwise bare black metal desk and turn it on.

It immediately directs me to a password page. Hopefully this data spike Zero programmed will work.

I take it off my belt and plug it into the terminal.

Off to the side in one corner of the screen a small window pops up showing some kind of computer script or whatever.

After a few seconds the password box is filled automatically and it unlocks. Sweet! Way to go Zero!

I start sifting through files on Mex's desktop… Okay… Financial transactions? Maybe.

I open it… Nah all it talks about is liquor and stuff.

Hm… Eureka! Black Market transactions! They really made this easy for me. I open the folder where I am met with a multitude of other folders.

Okay… Red Sand no…

Guns? No…

Slaves… Fucking bastard.

Uh… Hm… Maybe this one labeled Deals?

I open it and open the first file on there. It's a small credit expenditures statement. Looks like Mex spent 2,000 credits on a shuttle ticket from Omega to the Citadel dated for three days ago. Either he's been away on business to the Terminus Systems… Or he brought somebody here.

"_Jackson you read me?"_ Vaga's voice suddenly says over my comm.

"Yeah." I whisper touching my mic. "I'm in Mex's office, still haven't found anything concrete. What do you got?"

"_I followed them to the Kithoi Ward. They stopped at 1200 Block and checked into Kithoi Arms hotel. I talked to the clerk. It took a little… ahem… persuasion. But she told me in a nearby broom closet that they've been staying there for three days and they've paid for three more days. That doesn't match up with the facts though, because this problem has been in the Shadow Broker's side since before the attack, right?"_

"You're right…" I say confusion mounting. If that shuttle ticket was for those two at the meeting, then they've only been here three days, even though the meetings have been going down for a few weeks. That means that the representatives attending the meetings have changed every so often, the representatives haven't all been Blue Suns, or something else is going on entirely. "What do you think is going down Vaga?"

"_I have a feeling Mex's may not be the only Club that they're visiting. Oh and they only paid for one room. If you catch my drift."_ He says. I can just imagine the smug smile on his face.

I roll my eyes. "Good work."

"_It sure was."_ He says with a laugh.

I sigh. "Alright. See you back at Zero's."

I close the comm and continue looking through the files. Hm… Oh a little journal entry.

_Funny shit happened today. Some ugly ass guy came by and told me he worked for the Blue Suns._

_At first I was like, "Get the fuck out of here!" cause I knew that Blue Suns were illegal now and C-Sec is already keeping tabs on me._

_But he offered me a shitload of cash to spread some new drug around. I forget what he called it but it was just a bunch of gibberish to me. Well he said that he would pay me for it and all I had to do was sell it._

_I'm having Jeff make the deals with the Blue Suns._

This proves everything pretty well. I open the latest journal entry, this one dated to two days ago.

_That ugly guy, he said his name was Samuel; he left a couple days before the attack. _

_But he gave me money about a week ago to pay to bring some bitch to the Citadel from Omega yesterday. He said she was his representative, but Jeff's already been talking to some guy with a nice fringe. _

_Maybe not as nice as mine, but okay I guess. _

_And he said the chick was a real bitch and she hardly says anything. If I had to guess she's just muscle transporting the cargo._

Alright so the woman was the one that got here just three days ago. I set the spike to copy everything in the Deals folder. The download starts.

"_Jackson. The turian just left the hotel and is heading toward the cabs. Want me to track him?"_ Vaga suddenly says over my comm.

I shake my head. "No. I have a feeling he's not as important. I think that girl is more important."

"_How so?"_

"I'll explain when I go to deliver the info to Pinch. Just wait there." I say touching my mic.

"_Got it."_

I close my comm and after just a few more seconds it completes the download. I remove the spike and turn off the terminal. Just as I'm turning to leave I hear muffled footsteps and voices approaching.

Shit! I drop down under the desk and squeeze myself in.

The door opens and I hear the human guard's voice. "...in here?"

"Mex wanted the new product in here for some reason." I hear Choi say, his voice sounds strained with effort, they must be carrying something heavy.

"Where should we put it?" The guard asks.

"Uh… Just over here I think is good." Choi says.

They grunt as they place something heavy in the room.

"I don't know how the hell that one chick carried this by herself." Choi says sighing in relief. "That thing weighs a ton."

"What is this stuff?" The guard asks.

"Don't know, don't care. We're getting paid 80,000 creds for just spreading it around. It's a win-win." Choi says. "Come on. I got to close up. Who's got night watch tonight? Speaking of which where'd all the boys go?"

"Don't know I think they went home. As for the night watch…" The guard sighs. "I'll do it."

"You sure?" Choi says.

"Yeah I got it. Just make sure Mex hears about it." The guard says with a chuckle.

"Alright. See ya tomorrow then."

The door closes but I think the guard is still in here.

I hear him sigh. "What is this stuff?"

I hear him unlatch something and flip open a lid to something.

Something heavy is placed on the desk. "Whoa. Smells… kind of sweet. Like gelato."

I edge my way out of from under the desk and crawl around it and peek in the room.

There's a large square metal case in the middle of the room, maybe about as big as a treasure chest. The lid is off and I can see a bunch of large thermos things stacked inside.

The guard is standing in front of the desk examining something, presumably one of the thermos things.

I peek over the top and see one on top of the desk with the lid screwed off and the guard looking inside.

"So what do you snort it? Or…" The guard mumbles looking inside the container.

"You can eat it!" I say shooting the guard in the neck before he can turn.

I stand. You can eat it? Hm… I think I could've done better. I pull the dart out of the guard's neck and push him to the side.

I turn my attention to the container on the desk.

I peek inside. It's a very sparkly, light-catching substance that shines even in the low light, appearing like it almost glows. It's a very fine powder like flour too. At first glance I thought it was white but now that I've looked at it, it's kind of pink.

I take a whiff of it. Huh… It does smell sweet. It smells like… Hot chocolate mix! Yeah that's what it smells like. I don't know what he was saying, about gelato. It smells like Nesquik to me. I take a few pictures of the drug, the container, and the big case with my omni-tool and send them to Zero and Vaga.

"SNAKE: Analyze substance."

I hold my omni-tool over the drug container. _"Analyzing… Unknown substance. Tracking chemistry."_

A picture of its chemical formula and structure appears on my omni-tool. Damn lot of crap in here. Nitrogen, Carbon, Zinc, Xenon, Hydrogen, Boron, Germanium, Indium, Beryllium, Sodium, Radium, Barium, Magnesium, all the lanthanoids… It's almost random. There's so much here it's more of a question of what doesn't it have?

I should take a sample to Pinch.

I look around the room for something to carry it in. I circle around the desk and sift through the drawers. Finally I find a drawer filled with a bunch of small bags filled with blood red powder. Must be Mex's personal stash. I take an empty unused bag out of the drawer and fill it full of the stuff from the barrel.

Hm… Maybe I shouldn't take so much. I'll take just enough to analyze in a lab.

I dump the bag out and take a few pinches of the stuff and put it in the bag. Maybe I should take a little to analyze myself? Why not! I grab another bag and fill it with the drug.

I stuff the bags into a small compartment on my belt and exit the office.

Ew, I got the stuff on my hands. I bend over and wipe the residual powder on the carpeted floor.

I dust my hands off and head back down the hall to the freezer.

I step carefully over the unconscious guards and over to the maintenance hatch. Alright now I got to get to Teyseri Point to report to Pinch.

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><p><strong>10:48 PM April 21, 2182<strong>

After a fairly long cab ride, I arrive at Teyseri Point park.

I hop out and walk into the park. At this hour it's mostly empty. Place is still brightly lit from the Serpent Nebula though.

I spot a few people walking around, mostly couples. Makes me think of Alex. Sigh…

"Splicer?"

I jump and turn to look at Pinch. "Oh, hi Pinch."

"What have you learned?" He asks eager, leading me to a park bench.

I hand him the data spike and the weird drug. "That data spike has a lot of good stuff on it. Mex is involved, not just Choi. And it's definitely Blue Suns. I downloaded a recording of the conversation to the data spike. Anyway we learned that the Blue Suns are paying Mex and Choi to start selling that stuff." I point at the drug. "I have no idea what it is or what it does. All I know is that it's very addictive. Some guy named Samuel came to Mex before the invasion and made the proposition. But apparently Samuel left before the attack started. So far Mex has been letting Choi do all the talking at the meetings and he's been meeting with some turian. About a week ago, Samuel sent money to Mex, paying him to transport some girl named Jada to the Citadel from Omega three days ago. According to some journal entries that are on the spike, Samuel told Mex that Jada was his representative but Mex thinks that Jada was just transporting the goods because she's not good with negotiations. She's got a room at the Kithoi Arms Hotel on the Kithoi Ward and she'll be there for at least another three days. My team and I speculate that Mex's Club might just be one Red Sand club that is going to be selling the stuff. We believe that the Blue Suns are trying to get people addicted to this stuff so when people come to their Sand dealers trying to get more, there won't be any. And they'll have to go to the Blue Suns."

Pinch examines the mystery drug. "Hm. Fascinating. The key to this puzzle is the girl, Jada. She must have something in her hotel room. Same job, go in, get information, get out. Don't get spotted, I'll have this stuff analyzed. Thorough work so far Splicer. Keep it up."

He stands and leaves the park, pocketing the mystery drug and the data spike.

Since I'm lazy I'll just have Vaga infiltrate Jada's room. Better head there for backup to be safe though.

I stand and head back to the taxis. I hail one and start heading toward the Kithoi Arms Hotel.

I contact Vaga as I drive. "Vaga. You still at the Kithoi Arms?"

He chuckles. "_Yeah. I was about to call you. The girl is leaving. Want me to tail her? Won't be hard. She's got a nice ass."_

I roll my eyes and sigh. "No… don't. It's actually good she's leaving. I need you to sneak up into her hotel room and look for anything useful. Also bug the room. Still got a few listening devices on you right?"

"_Yeah. I'm on it. The clerk may need some more… persuasion before she gives me a key to the room though."_

I laugh. "Come on, Vaga. Just hack the door."

"_These fancy hotels always have alarms."_ He responds idly.

I roll my eyes. "Whatever, just get to it."

"_Will do."_ He says wryly.

"Zero? Did you catch any of that?" I say over the comm. Hopefully he's been keeping up. I need him to take a look at the chemical formula for that drug and see if he can find out anything about it.

"_Yeah I heard Vaga acting like a perv. What do you need me to do?"_

"I hope you passed chemistry in school." I say with a smile.

"_Uh… No I didn't too well. But… my roommate isn't bad."_

Huh? "You have a roommate?"

"_Yeah. Rent is pretty expensive on the Citadel. His name is Desmond. He's a human. He works at a Binary Helix… place."_ Huh… A human? Who voluntarily lives with a turian? Sounds like a cool guy! I want to meet him.

"Alright well give this to him when you get it." I send him the chemical formula and structure of the drug using my omni-tool.

"_Whoa… This looks… complicated. Desmond!"_ I cut the comm.

The cab slows to a halt and lands outside the hotel. I spot Vaga's car parked on the street nearby. I run up to it and punch in the code for it, taking a seat in the passenger seat.

"Vaga. I'm at the Arms." I say staring up the building. "Talk to me. What's going on?"

"_There's a bunch of those cases here. One is open and a few of those container thingies are open and empty. I think our little Jada might be an addict. I just hacked her terminal and I'm uploading all the files to my data spike. Also I think she's sharing the room with somebody else, not the turian. Also she doesn't wear any undergarments; I haven't found any in her luggage. That just makes me happy."_

"Whatever floats your boat?" I say sarcastically, feeling slightly sickened.

"_Lots of stuff floats my boat." _He responds. _"Also I looked over some of the files. The Blue Suns are definitely distributing this drug to Red Sand dealers, but they've only made deals with three of them so far. Mex, a pharmacy on Zakera, and a small custom arms store on Kithoi."_

"Good work." I say.

Suddenly I spot somebody walking down the street towards the hotel. If I had to guess that is Jada. Holy hell she is freaking fine! Ugh! Come on, Rob! Pull yourself together! You're not allowed to look at other women anymore. Alex is just as fine as her, if not hotter. Yeah, sure. Jada isn't my type now that I think about it. Too tall.

Looks like she just went out to get a late meal. "Vaga, Jada is on her way back. Hurry up, I'll try and buy you some time."

"_Copy." _

I get out of the car and start walking in her direction. If she's as much of a bitch as the stories confirm then she won't like this. As I approach I now notice just how tall she is. She must be at least my height. Granted that not seem too tall but I'm like 6'2" now. She's got lots of curves and fairly tanned skin. She has a shaved head and the small amount of hair left on her head is ebony black. Also I can see she's incredibly muscular and tone. This isn't going to end well.

I bump into her violently, causing her to stumble and drop her food onto the ground.

"Hey!" I yell angrily and very over dramatically. "Watch it lady!"

She scowls at me. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

"I don't think you care!" I say with a whole lotta sass.

"I think you're the asshole who just wasted my 30 credits!" She says grabbing the chest piece of my armor.

"Get your hands off me!" I yell dramatically, throwing my hands up to swat her arms away. However when my arms make contact with her wrists, they just stop.

The hell? I put more force into it, trying to get her hands off me. Uh oh…

She lifts me off me feet and holds me up in the air. Holy fuck! "You're gonna pay now!"

She raises me over her head, preparing to throw me down an alleyway. I kick her in the head a few times, which seems to have absolutely no effect. It's like kicking a statue.

She hurls me 15 feet down the alley, where I collide with a Keeper, toppling it to the ground with me.

I quickly stand and shake off my dizziness facing her confidently as she walks down the alley toward me threateningly.

As she reaches me I hold up a hand in defense. "Hey I don't hit girls."

She snarls and kicks me in the stomach. Oh… I think she ruptured my spleen…

She's no girl… she's a monster.

I slowly straighten and I rush forward and deliver flurry of quick powerful punches into her stomach then face.

Ow… that hurt my hand. She punches me straight across the face so hard that it causes me to spin around in a full circle.

She grabs me again and slams me into a wall.

I slide down to the ground coughing. I look up at her smug face. I feel my jaw is unhinged so I grab it and I snap my jaw back into place and Fast Healing starts its job.

Jada looks at me confused as I get up.

"Heh, you're not gonna take me out so easily." I say backing away from her slightly.

I use Aero Dash to rush at her, delivering a Mach punch to her face.

The massive force causes her head to snap back and her to stumble backwards.

She looks up at me, nose bleeding, with a fire in her eyes. Ah hell.

"_Jackson. I'm leaving now."_ I hear Vaga say over my comm. Luckily the She-Hulk can't hear it because my earpiece is still in my ear.

I duck under another of her hooks. Her hit connects with the wall, leaving a dent.

She tries to backhand me but I sidestep out of the way. Finally she delivers a standing kick to my hip that I think shattered it.

I fall to the ground gasping in pain. She kneels down and grabs the collar of my armor. "Any last words?" She says raising a fist high above her head. I doubt that a punch from her will kill me, but it'll hurt a lot. But I have to keep my cover. Gotta take one for the team.

"Yeah: Fuck you." I throw an open hand into her stomach to push her away, as a sign of protest. But something unprecedented happens.

As my palm connects with her stomach, I feel a weird pressure in my hand and a loud boom erupts. She flies back, and collides with a pile of crates, knocking her unconscious.

I also feel horribly dizzy. The hell just happened?

I slowly get to my feet but stumble from the dizziness and the minor throbbing in my hip. It quickly fades and I stare in confusion at Jada, who is out cold on the pile of crates.

Was… was that my new plasmid? That's not what I wanted it to do at all! I wanted to be able to summon animals to my aid. This one is still pretty cool though. I guess it makes a sort of… concussive blast or something.

What should I call it? Big Bang Attack? Fus-Ro-Dah? Meh, I'll just call it Concussive Force. That's not bad. Yeah Concussive Force.

Okay. Let's test it out.

I focus and raise my hand. Open palm. I activate Concussive Force after a second of focusing.

A small baseball sized orb of distorted air appears in my hand. No… That's a contained concussion. I try to close my hand around it but the pressure on the orb is so high that it feels like I'm holding solid stone. There is also an odd feeling coming from the orb. It's sort of like a pressure in my ears.

I raise my hand again, closed slightly like I'm holding a ball, and fire a concussive blast wave down the alley. It takes a second to charge, the pressure in my ears turns to a sound like rushing wind, after a second the wave erupts from my hand with a loud boom. The wave travels down the alley throwing objects violently out of its path for about 3 meters full force, before it dies down.

The recoil takes me by surprise. No plasmids really have recoil except this one. What also takes me off guard is the negative effect. Apparently after each concussive attack, I feel super dizzy.

I groan in discomfort and clutch at my head. I shake it off and look at my hand. Cool. This is actually better than the animal thing… though it would have been cool to summon a pack of varren or pyjaks or something.

"_Jackson. I'm at the car. Where are you?" _Vaga says over my comm.

I quickly exit the alley and jog down to the car. "Vaga."

He turns. "Oh hi. Why are you all bloodied?"

"Jada is some kind of… monster. She's freakishly strong. She lifted my straight off the ground and tossed me around like a ball." I say disturbed. How the hell did she get like that? Not saying it's not possible, just odd. She was as strong as most krogan and could take a punch better than Khalisah al-Jilani, I hope I never have to cross her path again.

"Monster eh?" He asks leaning over to glance at the alley. "Like… Does she have horns and talons?"

I shake my head with a frown. "No… She looks like a normal human. Why does that matter?"

"Oh it matters." He says with a wry smile.

I sigh. "Let's go. I have to give this information to Pinch."

Vaga hands me the data spike. "There you go. I also sent some pictures of the room to your omni-tool."

I get in the car and open my omni-tool. Usually it'll notify me of any new incoming stuff. I guess it might have, I was just too distracted fighting Jada to notice. I open the new pictures.

There are stacks of crates all over the room matching the one in Mex's office. There are also pictures of a few empty drug containers. And finally a few pictures of Jada's luggage.

"See?" Vaga asks leaning over and pointing at the picture. "No underwear."

I shut my eyes trying to clear his stupidity from my thoughts.

I open them again and delete the picture.

He shrugs. "Whatever. I got my own set of pictures. Just wish I had a closer look at her though."

I am about to comment on her looks… but I think it's best not to continue this conversation.

"_Splicer, it's Zero." _Zero says over my comm.

I touch my mic. "What do you got?"

"Nothing. Desmond can't make heads or tails of this formula. He said it's way too complicated for him to figure out. Though, he said that the structure slightly resembles cy… cyan… cyano…" I hear a muffled voice in the background. "Cyanogenic glycosides."

So the rest of the trip is in silence. We quickly arrive at Zakera Point Park.

"Wait here." I say getting out of the car and jogging over to the park bench Pinch is sitting on.

"Ah, Splicer." Pinch greets me with a smile. "Please have a seat."

I sit down. "Here's another data spike. This one has information from Jada's private terminal. We didn't have a lot of time to go over everything so we just copied everything on there and put it on here. Though we do know that the Blue Suns have made deals like the one with Mex with two other Sand dealers. One is a pharmacy on Zakera and the other is a custom arms store on Kithoi. There's more information on the spike."

He smiles. "Excellent! Excellent work! We can't let the Blue Suns get away with this, they've made fierce enemies of the Shadow Broker, but we can handle it from here. And here's your payment. 1,500,000 credits. Enjoy."

He hands me a platinum credit chit and leaves tossing the data spike up and down in his talon before pocketing it.

I look at the readout number on the credit chit: 1,500,000.

Whoops, I'm drooling.

"Wait!" I call to Pinch as he walks away. "I almost forgot to ask you!"

He frowns. "Yes?"

"Did you have a chance to analyze the chemical formula of that drug?" I ask interested. I really hope they have something. I'm pretty curious about that stuff.

"Unfortunately, no." My heart sinks. "The chemical compound is very, very sophisticated, although we do know that it is an artificial compound."

I nod. "Thanks Pinch. Take care."

"We'll be in touch." He says turning and walking out of the park.

I start walking out of the park and I use my omni-tool to download the payment to my bank account. Only 1,000,000 though. The other 500,000 I promised to Zero.

I touch my mic. "Zero. Mission accomplished and payment received."

"_How much did we get?"_ He asks sounding nervous.

"1,500,000." I say smiling. "That brings your cut to 500,000… Zero?"

"_Huh? Uh… Cool. Just give the chit to Nata."_

I cut the line and rejoin Vaga in his car.

"So?" He asks as I enter. "How'd it go?"

I nod. "Perfect."

"Cool. Need a ride back to your apartment?" He takes off the car without even waiting for an answer.

"Yeah. It's pretty late. Alex must be worried about me." That must have sounded conceited.

"She knows your line of work." Vaga says shrugging.

I nod. It still worries me though. I mean, what if I make enemies in this line of work? That could put her in danger. I'm not going to let anyone hurt her.

The car pulls into my building's garage and I get out once it lands. "Thanks Vaga for your help."

"No problem." He says taking off again and leaving.

I sigh and head down to my apartment.

"SNAKE: Activate sound dampeners."

"_Activating." _

I walk into the apartment, my footsteps making absolutely no noise. I grab a can of Topari and quickly kill it before going back into my bedroom.

Alex is sound asleep on my bed so I creep up and sit on the foot of the bed.

I start removing my armor piece by piece. During the process, after I have gotten all the parts off except for my under-armor suit, I feel hands glide across my chest.

I look over my shoulder, stopping as I feel Alex's lips on my cheek.

She pulls me back and lays me down. "I was wondering when you'd get back."

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><p><strong>AN: Long chapter, a lot of important stuff happened, stay tuned.**

**First off, I'm very happy to announce, we've broken the 100 review mark! Thanks a lot you guys, let's see if I can get to 200 by the end of the story!**

**Next, I'm glad to hear that all of you guys were misled by the last chapter. That was my goal, actually. See, the possibility of romantic involvement with Nelyna was a late addition to the story as a whole. I added it in because I like to keep you guys in the dark, and this was proving difficult when SOMEONE went and predicted that Alex and Splicer would end up together. So congrats, SOMEONE, you got me to add content to the story.**

**Thanks again for reading, new chapters are posted once a week every Tuesday.**

**So on that note, this is Mockingbird79, signing off.**


	23. Chapter 23 Hiatus

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

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><p>"<strong>Nothing is permanent in this wicked world- not even our troubles."<strong>

**~Charlie Chaplin~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 23: Hiatus<strong>

**1:19 PM May 2, 2182**

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><p>I come out of the bathroom after a fresh shower, wearing a pair of jeans. I toss my used towel into my hamper in the closet and lie down on the bed next to Alex.<p>

She sighs and rests her head on my chest. She picks up my arm and wraps it around herself, holding my hand in hers.

She turns my hand over and over in her hands, inspecting it closely. "You've got scary hands."

I frown. "Gee, thanks."

"Not in a bad way…" She says smiling.

I laugh. "Well what's scary about them?"

"They're all thin and long. Your knuckles are the scariest thing about them. They're all calloused and bumpy. They look like those knobby things you see on old trees." She says running her hand over my knuckles.

I scoff. "Gee thanks…"

She chuckles. "In a good way?"

I laugh. "Well if you punched stuff as much as I do than you'd get knuckles like these."

"Punch stuff?" Alex barks like some kind of biker dude. "You're such a boy."

I laugh. "Gee thanks."

She hits me. "Quit saying that!"

I roll my eyes. "Fine."

After a short comfortable silence, Alex sighs and turns over. She rests her head on my chest, her soft hair against my bare chest, and traces the center line of my abdominals with her finger.

"Well?"

I frown. "Well what?"

She looks up at me confused. "Well, tell me more about yourself."

"Eh… I don't like talking about myself very much." I say feeling fairly uncomfortable.

"Ugh!" She says annoyed. "I'm tired of hearing that! I want to hear about you!"

"Uh…" Should I tell her the truth? Of course I can't tell her I was born in the 1990's, she'll think I'm nuts.

"_Excuse me, sir?"_ My new apartment VI, whom I so affectionately named Cloves Barley, says with an English accent.

"What is it, Cloves?" I say sounding annoyed. That is exactly opposite of how I feel however. I'm actually relieved. It's a really saved by the bell moment.

"_There is someone walking down the hall in this direction. Based on walk patterns and eye contact with the door, I assume that they're destination is this apartment. This person also does not live in this building." _Cloves says pleasantly.

I hear a pounding on the front door.

"_Also based on body temperature and pheromone levels, I would say that this person is quite cross."_ Cloves says happily.

I look worried at Alex who looks concerned. "Stay here."

I get up from the bed and walk out into the front room and up to the wall panel computer. "Cloves show me who's at the door."

A small live feed appears on the computer, showing a woman facing the door looking very mad. She looks familiar… OH FUCK! That's Jada! That crazy chick from the Blue Suns job!

"Splicer!" I hear her yell from outside. "I know you're in there! Open the door or I'll break it down! I just want to talk."

"Yeah right!" I look around frantically for a weapon.

"You have until the count of three!" She yells from outside. "One!"

I run into the kitchen and pick up a frying pan. That won't work; her skull is harder than diamonds!

"Two!"

Fuck! Why didn't I buy kitchen knives? They're an essential kitchen tool! Just because I would never use them is not an excuse!

"THREE!"

The door, despite being made of metal, collapses out of its frame after a huge dent appears in it. Jada picks herself off of the floor and spots me in the kitchen, a fire in her eyes.

I roll over the counter and start running toward my room to get a gun but I feel her wrap her arms around me from behind.

She spins me around and throws me into my window causing it to spider web. Thankfully it is heavily reinforced and could withstand anything from me to a medium sized vehicle.

I fall to the ground with a grunt of pain. I can feel little pieces of glass in my back from the window.

I get to my feet and face her angrily. She stares at me shocked.

She throws up her hands. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

I interrupt her by blasting her with an Electro Bolt.

She spasms, her eyes wide with surprise. She falls down onto her hands and knees, smoke emanates from her body, but she is still conscious. How the hell is she still conscious? That was a full force Electro Bolt! I measured it last week to check my genetic progress! My Electro Bolt gives out nearly 50 million volts of electricity! That's enough to fry your nerves and stop your heart!

She gets back to her feet, a large circle burned out of her shirt on her stomach.

She charges forward and bear hugs me, pinning my arms at my sides.

I grunt and try to struggle out of her hold but it's like iron wrapped around me. "Let-Go!"

"No! We have to talk!" She yells angrily.

I cough. "What—could we—have to—talk about?"

She glares past me and growls angrily. "I'm not with the Blue Suns anymore! They tried to kill me. I need your help."

She releases me and lets me fall to the ground. I gasp in air desperately.

She helps me to my feet and I throw her hands off of me. "How can I trust you?"

"You can't. You just have to." Jada says desperately. She walks over and sits on my couch.

"Please have a seat…" I mumble quietly to myself. "You need my help? Why would I help you?"

She looks up at me. "Do you have a reason not to?"

"You're Blue Suns!" I say frustrated. "They're like… my arch enemies! I'm always mixed up with their business!"

"Exactly!" She says suddenly looking inspired. "That's why I came to you! Think about it: If I were still with the Blue Suns, why would I come to you of all people?"

Sure lady. I shake my head. "How did you find me? First, how did you figure out who I was?"

"Your face is in every newspaper and your name is on everyone's lips. I only didn't recognize you because I've never been to the Citadel. It wasn't easy finding your apartment and I had to bribe a lot of people, but I'm here." She looks determined. Looks like she's not leaving.

I sigh. "What do you need help with?"

She smiles excitedly. "I knew you would help me!"

"I didn't say that!" I snap back at her. "I just want to know what you need help with."

"Oh… Well alright, this may sound strange but… I want to join your team."

That is strange. I don't even have a team. "What do you mean?"

She looks at me confused. "… Well what else would I mean?"

"I mean why." I retort impatiently.

"Oh. Well because you are an intimidating figure. Aren't you curious about why nobody's tried to kill you yet?" Actually yes. "It's because everyone thinks you're invincible! I mean look at your history: You've done countless jobs, killed whole gangs of criminals single handed, you survived the attack on the Citadel, you survived that weird vein sickness you had, you fought me off for Christ sakes! I even heard of a job where you were trapped in a tiny cargo container filled with rabid Varren with nothing but a bag of peas and—"

"Hey!" I shout interrupting her. "That isn't a job I'm proud of and I'll never hear it spoken of again!"

"Okay." She raises her hands in defeat. "But please! I'm begging you! I need your help! If the Blue Suns hear that I'm with you now, they'll leave me alone!"

"How can you be sure of that?" I ask angrily.

She bites her lip and looks reluctant but finally relents. "Okay. Well… My old boss… Sam… He was boyfriend. And I was his personal operative. I handled assignments and stuff he needed done. Well I overheard him talking once, he said that you were the only person he was worried would ruin his operation. In other words, I think he's afraid of you."

That sounds right. "What can you tell me about him?"

"He's new. He just showed up one day and the Blue Suns just made him one of the Commanders out of nowhere. He outranks nearly everybody now and he's one of the inner circle, you know one of the people who makes all the decisions. Well he was put in charge of the Blue Suns's drug operation."

That sounds oddly familiar… "What is his name, again?"

She frowns. "Samuel Keppler."

Hold up! I open my omni-tool and scroll down to that information that started my career and pretty much everything that has happened to me so far. From Barla Von's death to the Battle of the Suns.

I open the first file, a letter from one Blue Suns operative to his boss, Vito Santiago:

_To: Vito Santiago_

_Boss,_

_Substance Four-D-Four-M just got back from the labs. This stuff is crazy! If we can find a way to lessen or eliminate the psychoactive effects of the drug, then we can literally make super soldiers! The new guy, the one who brought us the stuff? What was his name again? Sam Keppler right? Well anyways we've studied him a little and we haven't found a reason why Four-D-Four-M doesn't affect him the same way. Don't worry boss we're working on it. Also we still can't tell exactly what it is but it's natural so we can find it somewhere. Keppler says that wherever he got his is gone so we can't get it so there's no point in asking. Sorry but we'll keep trying._

_-Chuck _

Keppler… he's the new guy! The guy who brought Four-D-Four-M, whatever the fuck that is, to the Blue Suns! "Jada! Is that drug you guys were selling Four-D-Four-M?"

"No… It's called Aroma. But how do you know about that?" She asks looking at me surprised.

Damn… I thought I might've had something there. But even if it was Four-D-Four-M, what would I have done then? Nothing, because that means nothing.

I sigh. "Uh… what do you know about this Four-D-Four-M?"

Jada shrugs. "Not much. All I know is that it drives people insane and that Sam was loaded with the stuff, but it doesn't affect him the same."

"Why?"

"Nobody knows… But personally?" She smirks slightly. "I think he pumped himself so full of that stuff that he's like… immune to it or something and he's his own kind of special insane person. But seriously how do you know about Four-D-Four-M? That was top secret Blue Suns only intel."

I shrug. "I work for the Shadow Broker, Jada. I know lots of stuff. Well… What's so special about Aroma?"

"It's supposed to appeal to all customers. Your snort it and get an array of effects. What's unique about it is the smell. It smells different to everyone but it's always a sweet smell." Jada explains. "For me it smells like lavender."

Huh… Interesting. "Smells like hot chocolate mix to me…"

She nods slowly. "Okay… Well, are you going to help me or not?"

I shush her and sit down in one of my chairs. I see her fight off a scowl. Impatient isn't she?

Now… If this Keppler guy… He brought Four-D-Four-M to the Blue Suns but according to the letter they don't know where to find it so I guess that's good. But this new stuff… Aroma… What does this do? If Jada is a user then she ought to know.

I look up at her. "Jada. When we broke into your hotel room—"

"You broke into my hotel room?" She asks shocked.

"Uh… Yeah. Anyways we found empty drug containers there. Did you use them?" I ask eying her suspiciously.

She shakes her head. "No those were Sam's."

I frown. "He's on the Citadel?"

"No, he left me the day after we fought in the alley. That's in both ways too. Asshole…" She says sounding disgruntled.

Ah, a double entendre. I love them. Of course this time it's bad. I sigh. "One last question. Then I'll decide if I take you or not."

She nods.

"How can you… you know. Be like you are? All crazy strong and stuff?" I say.

She thinks on her answer for a while before smiling. "I might ask you the same question."

I smile slowly. Sarcasm… I like it! "You're not with the Blue Suns anymore?"

She perks up and shakes her head quickly. "No! I'll never go back to those bastards!"

"You'll never betray me?" I say firmly.

She shakes her head. "No of course not!"

"You'll follow my every order?"

She nods. "Yes! Anything!"

I nod. "Then you're hired. I could use some muscle for some of my missions."

She lets out a sigh of relief. "Oh… Thank God."

"God didn't hire you." I say sarcastically.

She smirks. "Right sorry. Thank you."

She stands and I extend a hand to her but instead she picks me up and hugs me. Holy hell she's strong. I kind of wish she told me how she's so strong.

She puts me down. Oh fuck! I almost forgot.

"Wait here." I turn and run down the hall to my room. I open the door but Alex immediately shoots me in the stomach with my gun.

I drop to my knees holding my stomach. "Ah… What the hell?"

She drops the gun a look of pure horror on her face. She covers her mouth and drops to her knees in front of me. "Oh… I'm so sorry! We need to get you to a hospital!"

I shake my head. "Nah I'm fine. Been shot plenty of times."

I slowly get to my feet and show her my healing wound.

She looks at me confused. "What… How did…?"

"Natural talent." I say with a sigh. "Anyways I just wanted to tell you it's safe to come out."

"What happened?" She asks as I help her to her feet. "I heard lots of noise."

"Long story, but I'll give you the short version…" I say as I lead her into the main room. "This is Jada. She's the new member of my team."

She stares at Jada suspiciously.

Jada stands and holds out a hand to her. "It's nice to meet you."

Alex continues eyes her suspiciously and Jada lowers her hand awkwardly. I sense a little hostility here.

"Splicer." Alex says without taking her eyes off of Jada. "Could I speak with you in private?"

"Uh… Sure." I say confused.

Alex leads me into Nata's old room which is now empty of stuff except for her bed, nightstands, desk and chair.

"I don't trust her." Alex snarls once the door is closed.

I frown. "Neither did I, but I had a reason. You don't even know her."

"And you do?" She asks spitefully.

I nod slowly. "Yeah… she was involved in a job I did last month. What's your problem?"

"She's hot!" She whispers angrily.

Oh my God. "Are you jealous?"

She crosses her arms and looks at the wall behind me.

"You're jealous!" I say grinning. I don't know why that's funny…

"Shut up!" Alex snarls.

I pull Alex into a hug. "Listen. I'm not interested in Jada, okay? She's not my type. She's too tall. Besides, you're ten times hotter than her."

She looks up at me, her angry expression gone. "Really? You think so?"

I nod. "Absolutely! Every inch of you is like fine silk!"

"You're just saying that." She says blushing.

I pick her up with ease and plant a kiss on her lips. "I didn't think I needed to, because of all the mirrors in my place."

She smiles. "Yeah… What's up with that?"

I shrug. "I like looking at myself."

She sighs and shakes her head. "Of course you do."

I smile and put her back on the ground. "Alright. Well I need to go over some stuff with Jada. Technicalities you know?"

She nods. "Okay. Well I need to get home for a while, okay? I'll come by tomorrow for dinner."

I nod. "Looking forward to it."

We leave the room together and Alex leaves the apartment.

I take a seat across from Jada in an armchair.

"Everything alright?" She asks staring at the hole where the door used to be.

I nod. "Everything's fine. So down to business. There are a few things we need to go over."

She nods. "Okay."

"Just a couple questions. First do you have your own armor and weapons?"

"Yeah but they're still marked with Blue Suns…"

I shake my head. "That's not a problem. Just take them to Jorgal Tyrannax on Teyseri. He'll repaint and upgrade em for you. Tell him Splicer sent you and that I'll take care of the bill."

She nods. "Okay… Anything else?"

"What kind of combat style do you incorporate? Are you biotic, do you prefer close quarters…?" I ask waving her on.

She nods. "I do prefer close quarters. Shotguns and the like. I'm no biotic though. I am proficient with shotguns and handguns, but I'm trained with assault rifles and sniper rifles but I like to stick to close range. I'm a very proficient hand to hand and CQC combatant so put me where the action starts and you'll see a lot of damage made."

Cool. If I count Zero and Vaga on my "team" then I have quite a squad. Vaga is a trained sniper and is good with assault rifles and techy stuff. Zero is a powerful biotic with skill sets comparable to Vanguards. Now I've got Jada who prefers shotguns. She's my krogan. "That's all good. I think that I'll have a use for you after all. Alright so if you're working for me then you get a cut from payment for jobs. You'll get a third of the final amount. Sound good?"

She nods excitedly. "Yeah! I've seen your rates, a third is way more than the Blue Suns paid me."

I smile. "I'm glad that's sufficient. Well it's good to have you on the team."

I stand and hold a hand out. She stands and shakes it in an iron grip.

She leaves the apartment looking particularly happy with herself. Well that was strange.

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><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I take a seat at my desk with a sigh and open my hidden weapons locker that contains my ADAM supply and guns.

I take out a container of ADAM and I recall that my EVE hypos are still in my armor.

I walk over and open my armor case. I take out my pauldron and start removing the EVE hypos from the armor. That's when I notice something clear and plastic poking out of my belt.

I frown and take out my belt and open the compartment on it. Oh yeah!

It's the sample of Aroma I took from Mex's place. I completely forgot about this.

I take it back to my desk and pour the Aroma into a petri dish.

I take a whiff of it. Hm. Chocolate Milk mix. Better be careful not to snort this. It's really addictive apparently.

Purely out of boredom, I take a syringe of ADAM and squirt some into the dish with the Aroma. I watch in slight boredom as it starts to bubble and froth.

"Hello?" I hear someone call from the main room.

I get up and walk out into the main room to see who it is. I smile when I see it's Nelyna.

I laugh when I see she's staring at the door knocked out of the frame and lying on the floor. "Hey Nelyna. What's up?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing…" She mumbles walking over to my couch and sitting down.

"Good news!" I say happily. "I recruited someone new to my team!"

"You have a team now?" Nelyna asks confused.

"Now I do." I say sitting next to her. "So what have you been up to?"

She shrugs. "This and that…"

I frown. She seems a little down. She has been acting rather strangely since a few days after the party and I have no idea why.

"Nelyna?" I say with a friendly smile. "Is everything alright?"

She looks up at me. She looks like she wants to say something but doesn't want to at the same time.

She shrugs. "Yeah. Everything's fine."

I frown, somewhat frustrated. I want to push the subject but I don't think she'll say anything.

I sigh. "Well. What did you come down for?"

She shrugs. "I was in the neighborhood and I thought you and Alex would like to join me for dinner."

I smile. "I'd like that, but Alex isn't here right now. Just you and me then?"

She smiles a small smile. "Sure. Sounds good."

"Alright." I say standing. "Let me just get changed then we can go."

She smiles and I walk into my bedroom. I throw on a shirt, shoes and a jacket and I grab my credit chit from my desk.

Odd… I pick up the petri dish. Why is it blue? Hm… Oh well. I toss it in the trash and exit my room.

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><p><strong>AN: Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review telling me what you think the hell is going on.**

**Sorry, this chapter is a little short in comparison to others. I scrapped like… 8 pages of content because it was of poor quality and was real crap. I didn't like this chapter so much. Now… eh… it's okay, I guess. I've been pretty busy recently, otherwise I would've rewrote this chapter entirely, like I did 4 or 5 times before a long time ago. So if this one is lacking in comparison… sorry.**

**And for all you guys waiting on responses on who my beta will be... I honestly haven't given it much thought, and I'm still busy with getting everything ready for them. I have 1 girl beta chosen, for now, along with an unofficial backup beta. I'm holding names for now, because nothing's official yet, but I have one more slot open.**

**Also if you want a good idea of what Jada looks like: Selina Kyle from Batman: Year One. Get it in your heads and make sure it's right because my bro said Jada looks like She-Hulk in his mind's eye. That couldn't be farther from what she looks like.**


	24. Chapter 24 Camaraderie

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

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><p>"<strong>He who does not trust enough will not be trusted."<strong>

**~Lao Tzu~**

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><p><strong>AN: Alright guys. Couple of things. I'm tired. Really tired. So I'm going to keep this short and sweet. There are a few drawn out descriptions at the start of the chapter that make this a slow to start thing, but it's a fun chapter over all so just stick through the first couple pages and you'll enjoy yourselves. Next, I'll just say thanks for reading and what not and I hope to see you next week…**

**Okay bye.**

**Ch. 24: Camaraderie**

**9:50 AM May 8, 2182**

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><p>A pounding at my new door tears my attention from the book I'm reading. "Who is it?"<p>

"Tyrannax. Your new stuff is ready." I hear the deep rough voice of Tyrannax say on the other side.

I leap off of the couch excited. "Come on in!"

He opens the door and places a trio of cases on the floor. One is considerably smaller than the others.

"This one's yours." He says pointing at the smaller one. "This other one is that human woman's. And as per your request I made a matching set for a turian." Ah, I guess he finished Jada and Zero's armor too. I had their armor color to match mine. We're a real team now.

I kneel next to my case and flip it open. Aw sweet.

I take out my new helmet. "You said it would take weeks to make!"

He nods. "And it took two."

I laugh. I showed Tyrannax the clip from Iron Man, showing him the part where the mask flips off the helmet. But I added some of my own design ideas to the mask part.

Its basic shape is like Iron Man but instead of that simple face part, I had Tyrannax make it look like a human skull. The skull design is only for the mask part however so when it flips off my face replaces the skull. Cool huh? This'll definitely make me look total badass. The eyes look like black voids but I can see there are lenses in front of them. "Hey did you…"

Tyrannax nods. "Yeah I put in that… what'd you call it? Detective Mode? Yeah that's in there plus all of the features it entitles."

YES! I had a rather long discussion with him a week or so ago explaining the features of Detective Mode from the Batman games. Among the features are the ability to track enemies through walls and solid objects as well as analyze their heart-rates, body temperature, and brain activity. It can also detect, mark, and analyze substances like spit, blood, alcohol, and other things like that. It can determine things like bullet trajectory, match fingerprints, and track heat, electrical, and biotic signals and stuff like that. It can also identify people using facial recognition and cross reference them with the extranet and encrypted C-Sec databases. Also it can take pictures. Sweet huh? I am so glad I thought of this before he finished the helmet. What's cool is I can turn it on and off in my helmet without pressing any buttons or whatever because the helmet actually tracks brain waves and neurological activity to see when I want the mask part off or if I want to turn off Detective Mode. So I can think things… And they'll happen! Cue biotic wind.

"Oh one more thing." Tyrannax says pointing at the helmet. "When the mask is open, don't stick your fingers in there. It closes with speed and power… what is that human animal? Alligators! That's it. It closes with speed and power that makes the snap of an alligator look like a pyjak hug. It's almost as powerful as the maw of a varren. Almost."

I frown. "Why?"

He sighs. "Sadly, that's the one thing I can't figure out. I got it to open and close, I just can't get it to do it more gently. While I was calibrating it, anything more or less makes it not open or close at all. So… this is what you get."

I shrug. I'm definitely keeping this.

I put my helmet back and I pull out my new rifle. It's slender and awesome. It's black with blue indicators and sights.

"You like it?" Tyrannax asks taking a seat in a chair which creaks under his weight. "It's got a laser sight, collapsible front grip, tactical rails to attach some of the custom attachments I made for you free of charge, and a scope that collapses into the gun when you don't want to use it."

He presses a button on the side of the rifle and a scope pops out of the top of the rifle. I look down the scope and use a small dial on the side to zoom it in and out. Excellent!

I put the rifle back and take out the two attachments. "What do they do?"

"This one," Tyrannax says gesturing to a small attachment, "is a tactical dart attachment. You can shoot tranquilizer darts like the ones from the tranq gun I made you from it."

Oh cool, like Crysis!

"What's Crysis?" Tyrannax asks confused.

I sigh. "Nothing."

"Anyways… This one is pretty cool." He says picking up one that looks vaguely like a flashlight. "It's a custom built Gun Mountable Camera or GMC that's remotely linked with your helmet. It'll fit on your shotgun and handgun too. In other words, you can turn it on and see from your gun's perspective. So you can shoot around corners and stuff without risking your head."

Awesome! That's so cool! "Wow that's impressive."

"Oh and the rifle does Armor Piercing like you asked." He says.

I put the rifle back and take out my shotgun.

"Ah!" Tyrannax says with a pleased smile. "I really outdid myself with this one. I am really proud of it."

"Why, what's so special about it?" I ask eyeing the shotgun. It's pretty simple in design. It looks like any regular shotgun but with a few extra buttons and lights and a front grip.

"Lots of stuff!" He says snatching the shotgun from my hands. "Check this out!"

He presses a button on the side and 12 tightly clustered laser sights shoot out the front. "See this?"

"Yeah so?" I say curious. This looks interesting.

"The shotgun shoots twelve separate shots, like every other shotgun. But! What sets this one apart is how they come out. By default this shotgun fires all the shots out of one barrel in a random trajectory like every other shotgun. Sure I can reduce spread, sure I can make it shoot faster, and I did all that. But I asked myself: What can I do to make this one special?"

He starts cranking the front grip like you would accelerate a motorcycle and the laser sights start spreading apart rather than facing perfectly straight. "Well, many years ago, back when I still worked for the leader of clan Jorgal on Tuchanka, he commissioned me to make him a special shotgun. Unfortunately the design was never used but I saved the plans. I made a special barrel that actually can break apart into 12 separate barrels. And instead of the ammo block contained on the bottom of the gun, it's wrapped around the barrel so that it can feed individual shots into each barrel. The barrel also has a special mass accelerator that has 12 small ports instead of one big one, one for each barrel when they split. The multiple mass accelerator ports and the positioning of the block means the barrels can angle up to a 45 degree angle, with the angle indicated by the lasers and a small screen that tells you the angle they're at here on the shotgun. So, in short, you have total control over spread."

Oh… No… Fucking… Way. "This is the coolest shotgun ever!"

He smirks. "Yes it is. While in Spread mode, it is almost perfectly accurate. So you can make very precise shots with a straight trajectory at a very great distance, but still have the effect of a shotgun. The down side of this feature is that it lowers the punch. So if you want kick, use the single barrel mode. The multi-barrel mode is for accuracy and precision."

He hands the shotgun back to me. "Thanks a lot Tyrannax. That's awesome."

He smirks. "I'm not done."

For real it does more? I hand the shotgun back to him and he presses another button and the inside of the barrel lights up with blue lights and a single laser sight shoots out the front. "This mode is Slug Mode. The shotgun uses a special cooling element to prevent overheating. But in this mode some coolant is shot into the barrel when you fire. It freezes the rounds together into an extremely dense slug of tungsten, ice, and osmium."

"It uses osmium?" I ask looking up at him in slight disbelief.

He nods. "Yeah, the ammo block is an alloy of tungsten and minor amounts of iridium and osmium. Osmium is expensive but useful, only because it's so dense. Slug mode is accurate and packs enough punch to take down enemies, shield and all, in a single shot, however, it makes the gun overheat very easily, pretty much slowing you down to about a single shot every second or two."

He hands the shotgun back to me. This thing is awesome… I look upon it with awe. "Does it do anything else cool?"

He shakes his head. "No. That's it."

Wow… "You've really outdone yourself. You're an artist."

He shrugs and stands to leave. "Anyways uh… Thanks for your business. Oh and I figured you would want a few spares, so I made three of each item including the helmet. They're leveled in the case."

"Wait!" I shout closing the case and walking up to him. "Listen Tyrannax, you're WAY too good at what you do to be working out of the basement of your shanty house."

He frowns looking a little peeved. "Do you have a point?"

"My point is: I want to give you money to get a real store." I say choosing my words carefully because I don't want to piss him off.

His frown deepens. "That's… That's generous but I can manage on my own."

I sigh. "Please Tyrannax. You say you're the best weapons and armor smith in the galaxy. I'm sure lots of people boast that but you got the skill to back it up. I'm not really clear on the process either but you get fast results. With the money you get from that store you can buy a real apartment!"

He appears thoughtful. "Hm… I don't like owing people money."

I shrug. "No skin off my back. How much could a store and supplies for an armor store cost?"

He nods. "A lot, at least 500,000. At least. That'd buy me a really crappy store. I actually have almost enough to buy a nice one but…"

"How much do you have?" If he has money then why hasn't he done it himself?

He shrugs. "I think somewhere in the area of 620,000. But that would barely cover property. I would need at least another 400,000 for new tools and stuff."

I nod. "I can give you that."

He shakes his head. "Like I said I don't like owing people."

I shrug. "Think of it as an investment."

He looks thoughtful again. "Uh… Sure. Alright."

Alright! Awesome! "That's great Tyrannax! Glad you're on board! And when you open, I'll give you an endorsement." My name's Splicer and this is my favorite store on the Citadel.

He frowns. "… Okay. Thanks? I have to go now."

"See you." I say smiling. He leaves and I sigh. Cool, now Tyrannax will have his own place. I can't wait until it opens. But now I have to go meet Jada.

"You're meeting her?" Alex says sounding cross behind me.

Why can't I think in my own head? I should get this checked. I turn around. "Uh yeah. I need to give her her new armor. Also I want to see how she is under-"

"What?"

"Under fire. We're going on a job."

"A job? Excuse me?"

"As in I got a job from somebody and I'm taking her along." I say sighing.

She scoffs. "Fine."

I smile. "It's nice to know that you care."

She rolls her eyes and walks back into my room. What a girl. I sure do love her. She's really cute and I love everything about her, it's going to suck when I have to leave her here when I go join Shepard's crew, but after the mission is over I'm coming straight back here to spend time with her.

Hm… Now that I think about it… What am I going to do after we beat Saren and Sovereign and the Heretic geth? Am I going to hang around with Shepard until the Normandy is destroyed? Or should I just stay on the Citadel?

What am I going to do for two years while Shepard's gone? How can I guarantee that I'll rejoin his crew the next time around? I mean it's not like he'll see me on… whatever the first colony they go to is called. I need to brush up on my Mass Effect Lore more.

Actually, I can't even guarantee that I'll join his crew the first time around but hell I'm going to try my hardest.

Well… can't worry about this stuff now. I sure do say that a lot. I need to plan ahead more. Bad shit happens when I don't, reminiscent of the events of the last couple months or so.

Whatever, planning is boring. I've always been one of those "Just do it" people. I just do things and I see what happens. As with this job I'm going to do with Jada.

Some guy under an alias sent me a message yesterday saying that he needed urgent assistance at his manufacturing plant on Teyseri. He gave me an address for the plant but left every other detail out including what I'd be doing. Normally I wouldn't do a job that I didn't know what it entitled, but I'm bored so I'm itchy for a little excitement.

A knock at the door distracts me from my musings.

I stand and open the door. Oh hell. "Oh… Hi Jada what're you doing here? I was going to pick you up from your hotel…"

Jada shrugs. "I'm itchy for action so I came by… Is that my armor?" She walks over to the cases. "Which one is mine?"

I hope Alex doesn't come in. Alex hates Jada and she's made that pretty clear so far.

I sigh. "It's one of the larger ones. One is for Zero so it shouldn't be hard to figure out."

She grabs one of the cases and places it on the table. She opens it and smiles. "Oh this is cool! I love it! That krogan is an artist! Though I can't say I appreciated his curious hands when he fitted me for armor."

… "Yeah… I wouldn't know about that."

There's a knock at the door again.

I walk up to it and open the door…

"Splicer I wanted—"

I slam the door in Miranda Lawson's face. What the hell is she doing here?

"What's going on, Splicer?" Jada asks turning around.

I run toward my room stripping off my clothes as I go. "Jada, get your armor on!"

I run into my room with just my boxers on and to my closet to get my armor.

"What the hell? Is Jada out there? Why are you in your underwear?" Alex questions from my bed furiously.

I grab my new under-armor suit, which resembles a quarian enviro-suit with its hexagon patterning, and start tugging it on. "Cerberus is after me again! Get into the bathroom and lock the door!"

She gets up and walks up to me concerned. "Cerberus? What's Cerberus?"

"Human splinter group. They've been trying to get to me so they kidnapped Nata, Ramlok's brother and Vaga. That was months ago. But they're back so I need you to get in the damn bathroom!" She nods and runs into the bathroom.

"Cloves lock the door to my bathroom." I say.

"_At once, sir."_

I snap my chest plate into place and run out into the main room where Jada is waiting fully armored with one of my shotguns at the ready. Her armor is very similar to mine but hers is much heavier. Also her helmet is similar to mine. I got this cool idea that each person in my team should match my armor but have a personalized helmet. I told Jada to go nuts with the design. Hers is pretty cool.

It looks exactly like mine in construction and function, except hers doesn't have Detective Mode and the only difference is the mask design. Hers looks like there are hands covering her eyes with a nose and lips on too. The entire mask is one solid piece of metal and the hands are 3 dimensional, not just painted on. More work equals more badass to Tyrannax. I was curious about how she can see with that on because it looks like there are no eyeholes but it incorporates a similar principle to the Kestrel helmet from ME2. It uses a tiny hardly noticeable set of cameras that relay a realistic image to the inside of her helmet…

Dammit! Keep your mind focused Rob! You get sidetracked too easily!

"Splicer, what's—" Jada starts, her mask snapping up from her face.

I shush her and grab my helmet and shotgun from my case. I put my helmet on and raise the mask. "My arch nemesis is at the door. She wants to get me again and dammit I won't let her!"

I close my mask and activate Detective Mode. I see Miranda's skeleton outside the door glancing around confused. My armor detects that she is armed.

I walk up to the door and raise my shotgun at it. I nod at Jada and she does the same.

"Cloves open the front door." I mumble leveling my shotgun with the skeleton's head through the door.

The door opens quickly and I simultaneously deactivate Detective Mode.

Miranda frowns at the sight of Jada and I with our weapon's raised.

"What do you want, Miranda?" I yell.

She frowns further. "Get those shotguns out of my face and we can talk."

"There's nothing to talk about!" I roar. "Leave! Now!"

Her frown deepens and she sighs through her nose. "I was sent by the Illusive Man. I want to apologize."

I lower my shotgun slightly, taken aback by her statement. They want to apologize? That's it? "What are you talking about?"

She shrugs. "I just came to apologize. That's it."

"Bullshit." Jada says from behind me. "She wants something else, I can tell."

I nod slightly. "What do you want, Miranda?"

"If I must be honest…" She says impatiently. "The Illusive Man is interested in employing you for a small assignment."

I knew it. "What makes you think I would help you?"

Miranda clearly hates talking to me. "We'll pay you 50,000 for the work."

"I'll. Think about it." I say lowering my shotgun.

She nods. "Good, now if you'll excuse me…"

"Wait." I say holstering my shotgun and raising my mask. "If you're going to apologize, then do it."

"I thought I already did." Miranda says with hostility.

I cross my arms. "I want to hear you say it. Say, 'I'm sorry.'"

She scowls and remains silent. Ha! I know you too well Ms. Lawson. Your pride will make this tough for you.

I smirk. "You know I'm in good relations with the Shadow Broker. He can easily put me in contact with the Illusive Man. I can tell him how rude you are."

She glares at me. "Fine. I'm sorry, Splicer."

I smile. Ha. Beat you bitch. "Alright. Now get out of here. I don't want to see you here again."

I close the door and turn to Jada. "Well that went well."

"Not really." Her mask flips up. "You were kind of an ass and she was trying to be nice even though it was obvious she hated your guts. Got the job done though. Who was she?"

Yeesh, I was kind of an ass, wasn't I? Oh well, she kidnapped my friends, I don't like her or Cerberus. Though… I guess I should at least try to be less of an ass in the future. I'll be working with her after all.

I shrug. "Doesn't matter. She's gone and that's what matters. Besides we need to go to Teyseri and do our job. We're late as it is."

She nods. "Alright, I'll meet you upstairs."

Jada leaves the apartment, looking up and down the hallway for any signs of Miranda before going upstairs.

I walk back into my bedroom. "Cloves, unlock the bathroom door please."

"_Absolutely sir. I noticed that altercation. Would you like me to add that woman to the Building Exclusion list?"_ Cloves asks politely.

Hm… Couldn't hurt. "Sure what the hell?"

"_Very good, sir." _

The door to the bathroom opens and Alex comes out looking concerned. "Is everything okay?"

My mask flips up as I nod. "Yeah everything's fine. I need to go do that job with Jada, but don't worry I'll call Zero to come by and make sure they don't come back."

She nods reluctantly. "Okay. Be safe."

Unable to hold back anymore, I lean in and kiss her passionately. After a long kiss, I kiss her on the forehead and back toward the door. "I'll see you later."

I turn and leave the apartment and start heading upstairs, losing myself as I walk.

I can't believe how I feel about that girl. No words to describe it really.

Man it would suck if I was writing a book or something about how I feel about her. Because I couldn't.

In the simplest way of saying it: I love her. That's all I can say really. That's all I got. No poetic or interesting descriptions. Love is simple I suppose. And yet it's so fucking complicated. It's so simple to say yet so hard to admit. It's so simple to feel yet so hard to describe. It's so simple to want but so hard to have. So simple, yet so hard.

Love is, right?

Why do I talk to myself in my head? It's like I'm having half of a conversation.

It's weird. I'll try to stop.

You're doing it again.

Dammit.

I open my omni-tool and select Zero. I type a quick message to him.

_Zero._

_I need you to come down to my place, one of my enemies showed up and I need you to watch Alex for me. My enemy is from Cerberus, Nata can tell you more. For safe measure bring Nata down too._

_Splicer_

After a moment Zero messages me back.

_Understood. I'm actually in the neighborhood with Nata now and we were going to stop by anyways. I'm unarmed, but I'll borrow one of your guns._

_Zero_

I reach the top floor garage and spot Jada standing next to a cab. "How did you get that to come here?" I ask as I approach her.

"There's a terminal right over there." She says pointing to the corner of the room… I can't believe I've never noticed that before. I've been using the one out on the street like a chump.

I get in the cab followed by Jada and the cab takes off for the manufacturing plant on Teyseri. I wonder what we're going to be doing.

"So." I say turning to Jada. "Tell me a little about yourself. We haven't had much opportunity to chat and I like to know people I work with."

Jada's mask flips up and she smiles. "If you insist. What do you want to know?"

Simple stuff is the best to start with. "How about where you grew up?"

She shrugs. "Okay. I was born and raised on Omega. My mother, whoever she was, gave me up for adoption. Thing is there aren't really any adoption agencies on Omega, the closest thing there is an orphanage."

I'm already regretting asking her.

"I lived in relative safety and poverty until I was 12. Then I got kidnapped and raped."

This story just made a turn for the worst really quickly. I'm definitely regretting asking now. I feel bad for her though… Oddly though, she seems impartial about it.

"After that I kind of lost my way. A salarian mechanic who was also former STG took me in and raised me until I was 17. After that I joined the Blue Suns and they used me as a guinea pig for their new steroid stimulants. I was the only person to survive the experiments because I had superior fitness and strength. Now I'm even stronger." She recites the story with a strange distant tone, like this is all stuff she read out of a boring book and it never happened to her. "Anyway. Now I'm here."

I frown. "How old are you, exactly?"

"Exactly? … Uh… Like 19 years, 3 months… 6 days… and a couple hours give or take." She says sarcastically.

19? That's a little young to be a mercenary… Meh, who am I to talk? I killed my first person when I was barely 17. That is if you can call a splicer a person. I don't.

She looks at me. "So where did you grow up?"

Why does everyone have to ask me that? "Oh… here and there. Enough about me, tell me about this salarian mechanic."

She rolls her eyes. "His name was Jallan. He was old for a salarian, about 38, but he was pretty spry. He was quite the slave driver too. When I got there he didn't take any shit. He just put me right to work, no questions asked. If I had to guess he saw that I needed help. Or something like that. He would have me doing stuff nearly all day." She chuckles. "He always got mad at me for sleeping in. I don't think he understood the fact that humans need 8 hours of sleep. I don't understand how he can work off 2."

I smile. Nice to see her humanized a little. She seems so beastly most of the time, just working off natural feral instinct. I'd hate to see how she reacts under fire. Guess I'll find out soon since we're here.

We get out of the cab as it touches down in front of the plant. A guy looking anxious is twiddling his thumbs and sitting on the ground next to the entrance.

He spots us and jumps to his feet. "Thank goodness you've come! You need to go inside right now!"

"Why what's the problem?" I ask as he pushes us toward the door.

"You'll see inside!" He says opening the door. "It's too dangerous for me in there. Just clear out the place while I wait out here."

I frown and walk into the building. He closes the door behind us and we're bathed in darkness.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Jada says from somewhere nearby.

I activate Detective Mode and look around the room. I'm not seeing anything in the factory. What are we supposed to clear out?

Suddenly I hear the door lock behind us and something bang against it.

I whirl around and see the skeletal outline of the guy we saw outside blocking the door with something. Soon after, another person, this one a turian… turians have weird skeletons… The turian walks up to him and hand him something before they both walk away from the plant.

"What's going on?" Jada asks confused. I hear her draw her shotgun and I do the same with my assault rifle.

"I'm not sure…" I say looking around the room.

Okay… Remember your dojo training. Look up.

I look up and see a group of skeletal outlines directly above us a few floors up, 7 of them, all human.

What the hell?

They spread out and quickly take positions around the room.

"SNAKE: Tap into nearby secure comm channels."

"_Tapping… Error! Encryption not found in databases. Shutting down."_

Okay that means that whoever these people are, they're using secure comm channels with unique encryption that doesn't match C-Sec, Blue Suns, or Cerberus channels like mine.

The lights suddenly flash on temporarily blinding us. I deactivate Detective Mode and look around the room.

We're in the massive manufacturing room with high ceilings and three floors of walkways above us. Odd thing is that the plant seems to be totally deserted. And it looks like it has been for a long time.

The only indicator of people who've been here recently are various crates placed around the room… and the people positioned on the walkways with sniper rifles pointed at us.

Great.

It's a trap.

"Splicer!" I hear one person, presumably their leader, yell. "We got you cornered. Give up!"

I'm going to fuck with them. "Give up what?"

"… Well yourself! And your friend I guess." The person responds. I see him approach out of the shadows nearby. Odd. There were 7 people that Detective Mode picked up, I didn't see this guy. He must have special concealing armor or something. I'm not completely sure on how my Detective mode works so I don't know if you can hide from it with masked life signs or whatever.

I point my assault rifle at him. "Why are you doing this? I'm not saying you're going to get away with it, but why did you set all this up?"

He laughs James Bond villain laughter. "Why, because we want you to fail!"

… Huh? "That's all? You could've dropped a banana peel in front of me or something and caught it on video. Instead you set up this elaborate trap or whatever?"

"Oh contraire. We want you to feel failure." He says approaching slightly. He's walking fairly stiff. It's strange. And his helmet makes his voice sound like it's echoing.

"I don't understand."

"We want you to fail, so you will retire and so that we can take your place! Say hello to the new heroes of the Citadel: The Metal Monsters!" He says laughing maniacally.

Metal Monsters? That's even less inspired than my name. "How are you going to make me fail?"

"We'll kill you!" He says laughing.

… "You're an idiot. You want to kill me to make me feel like I failed to retire? Your plan is full of incongruities. I suggest you think it over a little better then get back to me."

"… Dammit! Jim! You told me the speech was intimidating!" Muffled voices seeming to come from the guy in front of me respond to the person's statement. "No! Now that I think about it, it sounds stupid!"

I suddenly realize that the person talking is actually up on one of the walkways yelling downward at another person. Who's this person in front of me?

I walk up and pull the helmet off the guy in front of me. A mech stares back at me.

Fuck it. "Jada! Go left and get up on the walkways! We're going to flank em!"

She nods and runs down a hall to the left while I go right, tipping the mech over backwards as I run. These guys are pretty stupid. It'll be fun to take them out.

"_Careful, Splicer."_ I hear Jada say over my comm. _"They're not bad snipers."_

Her point is proven as a bullet flies through a small window and strikes my shields. That cut it down to about 40% strength. Damn they are not bad. The window was tiny and he has to have some pretty awesome timing to actually hit me.

"Ha! Got him!" I hear someone exclaim.

"Nice one, Jim! Is he dead?" Another shouts.

"Nah his shield took it." Jim says sounding proud of himself.

Dumbasses. I run up four flights of stairs to the top walkway. I peek around the corner.

There's only one guy on this walkway, and it looks like he's oblivious to my presence. I spot Jada on the other end of the walkway.

"Jada. Draw his fire, I'll take him out from behind." I say through the comm.

"_Copy."_

Jada charges down the walkway toward the sniper. He whirls around and faces her.

I raise my assault rifle and fire three shots at him.

The first is absorbed by his shield, the second breaks the shield and hits him in the shoulder, and the third hits him in the back of his head.

He falls limp to the ground and I rush out onto the walkway.

I look down and pull my head back just as a sniper takes a shot at me from below.

I think I can make that jump. It looks like it's about a 4 or 5 meter distance between the two walkways but I'm a floor up and I have Spring Heel to help me out.

I take a step back and leap off the walkway, aiming straight for the merc.

He takes a shot at me as I fall to him but the shot goes wild and misses me entirely.

I land directly on top of the merc, my feet connecting with his shoulders. He topples backwards, his head bashing against the railing with a loud crack. See? That's why you wear a helmet.

I quickly get to my feet and charge down the walkway toward the other two mercs on the walkway. Suddenly I spot Jada leap off the walkway above us. Can she make that?

Damn she can jump pretty well. She lands perfectly in the walkway, recovering quickly and blowing a merc apart with a blast from her shotgun in Slug Mode.

I raise my rifle and fire a few shots into the other merc, eradicating his shield. His shoulder gets a huge piece torn off of it as another slug from Jada's shotgun connects with him.

I feel the slug whiz past my head, barely missing me. "Hey!"

She shrugs and peers over the edge of the walkway. She points down. "They're trying to get away!"

I look over and see that the remaining three mercs had abandoned their walkway and are trying to get to the exit. It looks like they'll pass under our walkway to get to the exit.

Big mistake.

"Jada! Does your armor have the Kinetic Distribution?" I say quickly.

She nods and I can imagine she's smiling.

I climb over the edge of the railing and look down at the mercs. I got to time this just right.

"Ready? 1… 2… and… Now!" I shout, dropping down from the walkway. We fall straight down at least 25 meters to the fleeing mercs.

I land in a kneeling position on the ground like a boss, creating a massive dent in the metal floor. My Kinetic Distribution System activates and creates a powerful shockwave that, coupled with Jada's, throws the mercs off of their feet.

I get to my feet and see one merc starting to stand.

I raise my hand and hit him with a point blank Concussive Force. He explodes creating a splatter of blood and armor bits on the ground. Wow… I didn't know it could do that at close range… which begs the question of how the hell Jada survived one at an even closer range.

I shake off the dizziness and walk to the last one while Jada dispatches the other with a vicious stomp to the torso splitting in two.

He backs away as I approach and the moment is reminiscent of Samara's intro in ME2. That makes me Samara. Should I snap this guy's neck with my shoe? Couldn't if I tried.

I grab his collar. "Do you work for anyone? Or did you do this alone?"

He shakes his head frightened. "We did it alone! Our boss, the one that you just… blew up with your eyes! He said if we took you out, we'd get jobs like nobody's business. But we can't kill you! Leave me alone! You're a monster!"

I frown. "Stupid boss. What's your name?" I open my omni-tool. I like to know who my enemies are.

"J-Jim Hendricks." He responds.

I type the name into Notes on my omni-tool:

_Jim Hendricks:_

_Last surviving member of Metal Monsters_

_Notable Sniper_

_Idiot_

I close my omni-tool and Jada walks up. "Can I kill him? You got to kill 3."

"So did you." I retort.

"Yeah but you blew one up. I only blew a guy's upper body off. I can blow this guy's lower half off, making one blown up guy." She says gesturing at the terrified Jim with her shotgun.

"Fast math." I say sarcastically. "But we're not going to kill him. We're going to let him go."

"What?" Jada exclaims. "Fuck that! He tried to kill us."

I shrug. "Lots of people will. You work for me now. He's being a cooperative good boy. That at least deserves a few more years of existence. Though based on how stupid he is, I'd say months at best really."

"I resent that." Jim says nervously.

"You have no say in this discussion." I snap at him. "No go back to your cowering."

Jada scoffs. "You got lucky, mister. Leave your guns and scurry off."

Jim nods and runs off, ditching his sniper and pistol as he goes.

I smile. "That was fun."

Jada shakes her head. "Maybe, but we're not going to get paid."

My mask lifts off. "Oh you of so little faith. SNAKE: Scan the mercs omni-tools and hack their accounts. Leave Jim's. Nice guy."

"_Hacking… Transferring funds to your account."_

I smile. "SNAKE: How much did we get?"

"_Total sum: 30,000." _

Not really very wealthy bastards… Oh well. They were a new group. "SNAKE: Transfer 10,000 to Jada's account and 10,000 to Zero's."

"_Transferring."_

"Why does Zero get a cut?" Jada asks snootily. "He didn't do anything."

"He's watching Alex for me right now. That deserves something." I snap back at her.

"Fine, sorry." She says turning and heading back toward the entrance.

I holster my assault rifle and close my helmet. She walks up to the blocked doors. She pushes on them slightly.

"I think they're blocked." She says frustrated.

"And locked." I add.

She frowns. "Okay… then…"

She starts running her hand over the doors. She stops on a spot near the middle of the left door. "Right here."

"What are-"

She answers me back slamming her shoulder into the door, forcing it open. The dumpster blocking the door gets tossed aside by the force of her movement.

"I'll never get used to you." I say as I follow her out the door.

She shrugs. "Neither will I honestly. So… Home?"

I nod. "Yep. Home."

Better check up on Alex and Zero. I open my omni-tool and contact Zero.

… "_Splicer. How'd it go?"_

"Good. What's up, did anything happen?"

"_No. All's quiet. From what Nata's told me that surprises me. Maybe they just wanted to apologize?"_

I scoff. "Yeah right. Like that's going to happen. By the way have you looked at your armor?"

"_Yeah."_

"Do you like it?"

"_Yeah."_

I smile. "Cool…"

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue…<strong>

Miranda reaches the lobby of Splicer's apartment building. She pounds on the wall furiously. She fumes out her anger about how Splicer is an arrogant prick who uses people. And about he's a cruel person.

A door opens in front of her and an angry and old turian snarls at Miranda. "Hey! Don't pound on my walls! You're disturbing my work!"

Miranda scoffs. "Who the hell are you?"

He snarls again. "I'm Haephis Dalarian! I helped save the Citadel! And I own this damn building! Now who the fuck are you?"

Miranda wipes turian spittle off her face. "My name is Miranda Lawson. I was visiting Mr. Jackson."

Dalarian scoffs. "Splicer… Oh, Splicer! You're my hero! If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be alive."

Miranda's expression of contempt changes to one of interest. "And you're angry because the Council overlooked you?"

He rolls his eyes. "Exactly. I defended dozens of people and did it out of the kindness of my heart. Hell I let Jackson's friends in here even with the excess number of people in the building."

Miranda smiles. "Mr. Dalarian, you're just the person I was looking for."


	25. Chapter 25 TC P 1: Behind the Blindfold

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>It is hardly possible to build anything if frustration, bitterness and a mood of helplessness prevail."<strong>

**~Lech Walesa~**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright guys, this is it, the added content. This was literally added not… a month ago, so fine tuning is a little bull crap. So please excuse tiny errors. All around though, the 5 new chapters are pretty good, you guys will like them, I'm sure.**

**But anyways, down to the brass tax. Ok, here's the thing. I been getting a lot of reviews, a lot of… ideas, shall we say, in which people think it would be a damn good idea for Splicer to go after Miranda's sister. Now, I know what you're thinking: "Whoa, that's a great idea." Well it's not. Think about it a little. It's a self-insert, and no matter how much crap and genetic alterations I may go through in real life, I still don't think I would kidnap any innocent and ignorant people. Now let's put Miranda into consideration here: Do you really, honestly think that Miranda Lawson could possibly like me any less in this story? Well she definitely would if I kidnapped her sister and used her as leverage to get Cerberus to leave me alone. And don't you think that that's a little extreme too? Besides, kidnapping for the sole purpose of leverage is something Cerberus does, not Splicer AKA me. So to maintain an easier atmosphere in future sequels, I will not use Oriana Lawson as leverage against Miranda. Maybe I'll use her in some other way: Maybe go on a date with her, piss Miranda off, that'll teach her. For now though, I maintain a steady monogamous relationship with Alex… What was I talking about before?**

**In any case, I appreciate the input, and it is definitely welcome. So don't let my lengthy and smart assed rejection slow you down, we're just getting started.**

**Ch. 25: The Chain**

**Part 1: Behind the Blindfold**

**1:19 PM May 9, 2182**

* * *

><p>20… 21… 22… 23…<p>

Beeping from my terminal makes me pause and interrupts my flow. I drop down from the pull-up bar and rub my sore arms as I walk up to it.

I lean over the chair and examine the new message I just received. Looks like another job offer.

_From: Gilon Hark_

_To: Splicer_

_Hello._

_I own a store down on the Teyseri Ward, Galactic Logistics. Recently a street gang has been vandalizing my establishment. They break in almost every night and smash the place up and I always have to clean it up. Thankfully they're always run off by C-Sec, but they still manage to do a lot of damage._

_I need you and your team to come by at around 9 and stay overnight. When the gang comes to remodel, remodel them._

_I will pay your average standing rate, and we can negotiate a bonus if nothing is damaged in my store._

That seems simple enough. I put my omni-tool on and forward the message to both Zero and Jada. It looks like we have a payday coming in.

* * *

><p><strong>9:02 PM May 10, 2182<strong>

Zero, Jada and I walk in a line toward the store. The lights are off inside. We stop outside of it and look around.

"So…" Jada starts. Zero and I look at her. "You sure this is where we're supposed to be?"

I nod. "Yeah. Or I'm pretty sure. I looked up the address of Galactic Logistics and it said it was here."

"There's no sign." Zero notes. "And… It seems to be kind of out of the way."

I look up and down the absolutely abandoned street.

"… It's creepy here." Jada mumbles glancing around.

I shiver. "Yeah, you're right."

"Should we just go?" She asks. "It doesn't look like anybody's home. And if this place hardly gets customers, you'd think the owner wouldn't mind a few visitors, even if they're gangsters who aren't there to buy something."

I smirk and look at her. "Are you getting soft on us Jada? A little creep factor going to turn you away?"

She scoffs. "Please! I only turn away from things that are a waste of my time! That's exactly why I turned down your friend, Vaga."

I burst out laughing.

Zero sighs. "Can we get on with this?"

I roll my shoulders and pop my neck. "Let's head on inside."

We walk up to the door together. I raise a fist and pound on the door. I can hear the sound echoing inside. No answer.

I nod at Jada.

She squats down and lifts the door up off the ground. Zero and I walk inside the pitch black interior, followed by Jada who lets the door crash down to the ground, bathing us in darkness.

"Lights on." I command turning on the light built into my helmet.

Zero and Jada do the same. We all take a quick second to scan the room.

Empty. There is absolutely nothing in the room. Oh, I'm sorry. That's a lie. There's dust.

There is also a door at the other end of the room.

"Is anybody else having a bad feeling about this?" Jada asks. Her voice echoes loudly in the room.

"I am." Zero mumbles.

"Okay… Good."

I shush them. "Keep it together you guys! We haven't even made it 5 steps into the store yet! Now let's check out that back room."

I walk towards it with Zero and Jada following. I walk up to the door and open it.

Really?

"That's odd." Zero mumbles running a hand over the brick, yes brick, wall on the other side of the door.

"How cliché." Jada comments, cocking her head to the side as she examines the wall curiously.

"Alright!" I announce loudly and frustrated, throwing my arms up. "What the hell's going on?"

I hear deep chuckling from behind me. We all whirl around, guns snapping up at the new arrival.

"Why don't I explain it to you, then?" A man with a clown mask on says. He sounds like Hannibal Lecter. "You see, you three, are worth a lot of money. And we…" He gestures to something behind us. "Like money."

I glance over my shoulder at the gun pointed at the back of my neck. Crap. How did that even happen?

The man raises his arms up above his head like a maestro. "Ready boys? Bring down the curtain!"

I feel a burning, stinging pain in the back of my neck, and in less than a second, I collapse, unconscious.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Alex enters Splicer's apartment, carrying a bag of groceries in her arms. She walks into the kitchen immediately to her left and sets them down on the counter.

"Splicer!" She calls out. After a few seconds in which there's no response she frowns. "Cloves, where's Splicer?"

"_He and Zero and Jada went out together on a little outing."_ Cloves responds.

Alex frowns and enters Splicer's bedroom. A small note is on the desk. She picks it up and reads it.

_Alex,_

_Gone out on a job with Zero and Jada. I won't be back until pretty late or even tomorrow morning. Don't wait up._

_I love you,_

_Splicer_

Alex sighs and drops the note on the desk without examining the doodles all over the note further. She sits down in his chair and rests her head down on her arms.

Sometimes, Alex wished that Splicer didn't do what he did. It's dangerous, nerve-wracking, and just plain stressful. Sometimes Splicer would come home and Alex would be waiting for him and he would just take his armor off and fall onto the bed and he would just be… sad. He wouldn't cry or anything but he wouldn't talk or listen or anything. He would just mumble something in a monotone and depressed voice that doesn't fit with him.

Wherever he is right now, Alex hopes that it isn't causing him too much stress.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

I open my eyes blearily. A bright light above me makes me blink in discomfort. I feel so weak. I try to lift my arm to shield my eyes but it feels so heavy.

"Boss." I hear someone say. "He's waking up."

I see a dark shape above me. It blocks the light and after a second I can see who it is. And it doesn't help my confusion that I don't know who _he_ is.

The man is round faced and stout looking, with dark hair combed back from his face. His face has an odd balance to it. Something in there makes you want to trust him but you know you can't. He smiles down at me, flashing pearly white teeth and making his face crease in a pleasant way.

"He's still under the drugs effect." The man says. I recognize his voice easily. He sounds like Anthony Hopkins with that Hannibal Lecter personality behind it. "You don't need to worry about him being a problem. Aw…" The man reaches down and strokes my cheek. "Look at him. Drooling like a baby."

The man starts to chuckle and he quickly straightens and throws his head back, laughing maniacally.

Another dark shapes moves in and leans over me. He starts strapping me down. I look around at where I am. I'm in some kind of… I don't know… metal coffin?

The other man finishes strapping me down. He smiles at me. "You and your friends are going to make us very rich."

He steps back and reaches across the coffin to the lid on the other side. He pulls it down and closes the coffin. Instantly it is silent and I can hear only my breathing. My face is still bathed in light from above due to a small window about where my face is. The inside of the coffin is also dully lit with a bluish light. At least it's comfy in here. I'm lying on some kind of… gel. It's firm but comfy.

Yep that's me. The glass is half full. Never mind the fact that I'm being held captive by a psychopath and I'm still super groggy from whatever they drugged me with. I look down at myself. It doesn't look like they put any tubes in me, which is good. Though they did strip me down and fit me in a pair of loose white pants. At least I'm not naked.

I then hear some sort of mechanical whirring and I feel the gravity slowly shifting towards my feet. Looks like their lifting me upright. I watch through my little window as I'm raised upright.

After I am straight I can get a good look at where I am. I'm in some sort of medical wing or something and I can see a group of people standing facing me, with two men standing opposite them. It's too dark to see their faces but the group of people is substantially larger than the other two. I then notice something to my left. A window.

Aw crap.

We're in space.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero jolts awake. His sits up quickly and finds himself in an 8X8X8 square foot room. The only furniture, if you could call it that, is a toilet.

Zero suddenly notices the pressure that constricts his body. He struggles against the straight jacket, trying to work his way out of it, to no avail. Other than the jacket, the only clothing he's wearing is a pair of loose fitting white linen pants.

Finally, realizing he won't be able to get out of the straight jacket, he sets about finding a way out of the cell.

Zero gets to his feet and walks around the cell, staying close to the walls in order to try and hear what may be going on outside.

Zero sighs in frustration, not only at not being able to hear anything that goes on outside, but also finding that his cell has no door.

Suddenly, on the other side of the room, one of the small square wall panels slides open and a tray of food is dropped into the cell from it.

Zero charges at the hole, sprinting as fast as he possibly can. But the panel closes before he reaches it. He doesn't stop and rams his shoulder into the panel. A loud metallic bang follows, but the panel appears undamaged.

Zero slides down to the floor with a tired sigh. He looks over at his tray of food. Doesn't look quite appetizing. But, if Zero had to guess, it'd be nutritious. His initial assumption is that he and his friends have been captured by slavers and he recalls somebody saying that they were worth money. And malnourished product is worth less.

So, in order to keep his strength up, Zero repositions himself so he's facing the panel and he leans over and takes his first bite of the yellow oily looking paste.

It's so disgusting he spits it out and starts to cough.

After Zero is done coughing, he leaps to his feet and growls at the room. "You bastards listen to me! Don't pretend you can't hear me because you know you can! My name is Zero! Remember it! And remember my face! I want it to be the last thing you see! And I want it to be the only thing in your mind when the life drains from you bodies! I am Zero! And I've fought worse people than you!"

* * *

><p><em><strong>4:50 PM October 4, 2171<strong>_

"_And… Burst!"_

_Zero roars and bursts his biotic barrier in a powerful wave in unison with his comrades. He feels pressure from all other directions, but his Iron-Horse stance remains unchanged._

"_Zero! Excellent!" The Cabal commander yells enthusiastically. "Everyone around you staggered! Everyone else! Pick it up a notch!"_

_Zero can't help but smile with pride. That is until he feels an explosive force against his back, sending him flying forward into the person in front of him._

"_What the hell do you think you're doing?" The Cabal Commander roars._

_Zero rolls off of the person in front of him and rubs his bleeding nose. Another turian soldier walks toward him, biotic aura alight._

_Zero looks up at the Commander. "Sir? Permission to defend myself."_

"_Permission granted." The Commander says, narrowing his eyes._

_Zero gets to his feet and charges at the ignorant piece of slag that attacked him. His target halts and prepares himself for Zero._

_But he didn't prepare enough. Zero throws his arm back, his biotic aura glowing like the center of a blazing fire._

_Zero waits until his target is within arm's reach, and then throws his fist forward into a punch, strengthened by biotic power._

_The punch connects with the soldier's chest. The soldier collapses and slides some 30 feet into a wall. Everyone in the room starts to clap, but the applause dies down at the sight of the result of Zero's brutal attack._

_The man's chest is collapsed and blood flows freely from his mouth. He was dead before he hit the wall. _

_The Commander looks at Zero. "Not your fault Zero. He attacked you. Do you have any idea why?"_

_Zero shakes his head. "No."_

_But he knew why. Zero took his energy drink this morning. He was thirsty._

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Jada wakes, with her eyes still closed. Her head feels like it's been hitting a headboard all night.

She raises a hand to press against her forehead and groans. She opens her eyes slowly and stares up at the ceiling. But the ceiling is blocked by a bubble-like kinetic barrier.

Jada frowns and sits up. She is confused further at her state of clothing. Nothing but a pair of white linen trousers.

Jada scoffs. "I'll bet whoever handled me had a field day."

She stands and looks around the room. The room she's in is a small perfect. In each corner of the room are powerful shield pylons that are often used in prison ships to contain prisoners. These however create an impenetrable field around Jada…

"At least I can get to the toilet…" Jada mumbles walking over to it.

Jada then notices another person in the room with her. An asari guard. Jada scowls and covers herself with one arm. She walks over to the closest point to the guard in the bubble and pounds on the barrier with her free fist. The barrier flares with light as she strikes it.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" Jada screams at the asari.

"No. I like watching you in there." The asari responds with a wry smile.

Jada's scowl deepens. "I swear, that the first person I'm going kill when I get out of here is going to be you!"

"Good luck with that." The asari says standing from the chair she's sitting in. She walks up to the nearest pylon and points to it. "These pylons are some of the most powerful kinetic barrier generators on the market. One, by itself, can make a barrier capable of withstanding a small arms ballistic missile. Two linked together can withstand sustained fire from a Grizzly tank. Three linked together can withstand collective fire from 10 geth Armatures. And four can withstand orbital strikes from Turian frigates. And unless you have something that can match that then you're not getting out of there anytime soon."

Jada snarls at her and flexes her arms. "I have these."

The asari smiles wide. "Oh yeah! Those are definitely packing _some_ kind of firepower!"

Jada covers herself again and growls at her. "Bitch…"

Now tired of occupying an arm, Jada walks over to the center of the bubble and sits cross-legged, facing away from the asari guard. She takes the leg of her pants and tears the pant leg off around mid-thigh on each leg. She then tears the pant legs until each one is a long strip of linen. She then wraps the strips of linen around and around her chest, creating a make-shift top.

"Aw." The asari calls loudly. "Way to make this job less fun, lady."

Jada just glares at her and begins the meditation rituals that her salarian mentor, Jallan, taught her. In a few moments, all sound becomes nothing to her, all physical sensation is dulled, all there is, is thought. She uses the new state of mind to her advantage, running scenario after scenario through her mind.

Hours pass.

And Jada can't think of one successful one.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"BORED!" I scream at nobody.

I sigh. To now fill the space, I start beatboxing.

However, in the middle of a beat something travels into my mouth from somewhere inside of me. Because I don't have hands free I try to figure out what it is with my tongue… Hm… Um… Oh! It's that microcommunicator I had surgically inserted in the back of my throat! Hm… those must have been some poor stitches. I had Zero and Jada get them too. Hopefully they remember they have them. If only I could get it into my ear. The microphone that picks up what I say is in my throat. All I need to do is turn the microcomm on then put it in my ear.

Suddenly the pod or coffin I'm in lowers back down into lying position and I hear it latch onto something low to the ground. I can see through my little window that we're moving. Looks like we're going somewhere.

After a long and not very scenic trip, my pod is again raised upright. Okay I'm in a totally different place now. This new room is small and square and I can see that the group of large people from before were batarians. They're wearing black armor painted with red chains.

If I had to guess? Slavers.

Suddenly I hear a hissing and the coffin lid opens with a pop and a whoosh.

Without a word a batarian walks up and puts a breathing mask over my mouth and nose and makes sure it's secure. He takes the tube at the other end and attaches it to the side of the pod.

He grabs the lid and swings it shut.

I'm confused.

Suddenly a quiet alarm sounds in the pod and the bluish lights flash red. I look around panicked.

And I feel something at my feet.

I look down at the gel slowly filling the pod. As it rises, the straps holding me down remove themselves and disappear into the pod. But also as it rises, the gel solidifies into its firm yet comfy state. I start to struggle against the straps and the gel.

Finally my arms are freed and I whip them up away from the gel. I remove my breathing mask and I reach into my mouth and take out the communicator. I turn it on and examine it for at least one of the two red lights to see if they're on. If there's one on that means someone else's is on. If they're both on that means everyone's is on. YES! Both of the lights are on!

I quickly jam the microcomm in my ear.

"Hello!" I yell out. "Zero! Jada! Something's happening! I don't know what's happening!"

The gel starts to crawl up my chest and it freezes my elbows in place so my hands are stuck next to my face.

"Zero! Jada! Someone please!"

There's no answer on my comm. Dear God… I'm alone. Tears start to slide down my face. And all I can think about is Alex. Suddenly I'm filled with a determination. I will see her again.

I start to struggle violently against the straps and gel.

"_You might not want to do that."_ A deep gravelly voice says through an intercom. _"If you struggle too much your breathing mask might come off… Oh… Please put that back on. You'll suffocate without it. Don't worry. It doesn't hurt. Stasis is actually quite pleasant."_

STASIS?

I start screaming in rage and horror and struggle as the gel rises up my neck.

"Whoever's listening?" I say quickly as the gel touches my chin. I quickly replace the mask over my face with some difficulty. "They're putting me in stasis. I don't know what for, probably to sell me to someone who wants me dead." I pause and tears stream down my face into the gel that is covering the breathing mask over my face. "Please… I'm scared. I-I don't know how to get out of this. I've always had a plan, I… Please help me if you can find me. That's all I can do is beg now, I won't be able to do anything else. But if… if you can't find me, tell Alex that-" I am interrupted as I close my eyes and feel the gel solidify around my face, freezing my jaw in place. Suddenly I feel very numb and I fall into perpetual stasis.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero sits there shaking, in anger. At first he didn't know what he was listening to, or where it was coming from. But then he remembered the microcommunicators that Splicer had surgically implanted into the back of all of their throats. And then he was forced to listen to Splicer's desperate cry for help.

He was forced to sit there. And listen. While his friend, his brother-in-arms, is put into an endless sleep.

For whatever reason, Zero's microcomm was on, but his mic wasn't on and he couldn't talk to him. Tell him that there was no way he was going to be left behind.

Zero stands slowly and kicks the empty tray of food aside. He walks backwards, facing the wall panel that opened, until his back touches the other wall. He then charges forward at it, his biotics powering.

He rams his shoulder into the panel and his biotics explode. No damage. Again.

Zero backpedals back and does it again. And again. And again. And again. Finally, Zero just stays next to the wall panel and rams his shoulder into it again and again, using his biotics to bring the force.

After what feels like hours, and an uncountable amount of attempts, Zero collapses back from the undamaged wall, in exhaustion.

He rolls over onto his front and sits up slowly. He feels tired, like he has never felt tired before. But he will keep fighting. And he silently swears to himself: That every slaver on this ship will die, whether Splicer dies or not and no matter the cost.

He swears this because he is Zero, and he has no mercy.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Alex squats there in front of the trashcan, shaking in fear. Her cheeks are soaked with tears and she is holding the small ear-bud-like communicator in her shaking hands.

She didn't know what it was at first, but she knew who was talking. She tried to talk back, to tell him that she'll find him.

She will find him. Because she loved him.

She will find him. But she didn't know how.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well there it is. This is what this chapter and the next 4 chapters are about. They aren't about me at all. I'm not even going to be in it. That's a first for a self insert, right? These chapters are all about the OC's of my story.**

**Well thanks for reading. Have a nice night.**

**Anyways, I'll give you a few options here: You can enjoy the chapter; you may leave a review telling me that I'm an ass; And you can tune in next Tuesday for another chapter. Or, you can do all of the above.**

**With Love,**

**Mockingbird79**


	26. Chapter 26 TC P 2: The Missing Link

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."<strong>

**~William Shakespeare~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 26: The Chain<strong>

**Part 2: The Missing Link**

**10:43 PM May 10, 2182**

* * *

><p>Zero coughs roughly. Nothing comes out.<p>

"Come on!" Zero growls quietly. He coughs roughly again and something flies out of his mouth onto the floor. Zero examines the microcomm, two lights on. And the switch is in the on position. All that is left to do is turn on the mic.

Zero cringes at what is to come. "First I got to get this straight jacket off."

He starts to struggle with it, trying to get enough leverage to pull it off. This escalates to rolling around the floor of the room, as he attempts to get it off. Finally he stops and takes a few deep breaths.

He sits up and starts gnawing at the sleeves. His sharp teeth make quick progress. Zero guesses they don't capture many turians.

After the sleeves of the jacket are damaged enough he just muscles it and rips the sleeves off of it. Zero stands quickly and rushes back over to the microcomm and kneels next to it.

His captors are probably watching, betting confuse them. Zero scoops up the microcomm as he stands, making it look as nondescript as possible. He rushes over to the toilet.

"This is going to suck…" Zero mumbles. He squeezes his eyes shut and sticks his finger in his mouth. He prods at the back of his throat with his finger until he hears a click, gagging the whole time he does it.

Finally he curls his finger further down his throat until his gagging reflex makes him vomit. One odd event, something distracting enough is enough to confuse his captors.

Zero leans over the toilet and places the microcomm in his right ear, just underneath his fringe. He clears his throat….

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"_Hello?"_ Alex hears somebody who sounds kind of like Zero say through the small ear-bud comm thing. _"Can anyone hear me?"_

"Hello?" Alex cries into it panicked.

She waits. But there's no other response.

She deduces that the ear-bud must be the listening part. She sticks it in her ear and sifts through the trashcan. Finally after what feels like forever she finds a thin strip of flesh colored plastic with a small button in the center. She presses it and the button glows red.

She holds the odd device up to her mouth. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

"_Jada? Is that you?"_ The person responds.

"No, it's Alex." She says, trying desperately to steady her voice. "Zero is that you?"

"_Alex?" _Zero says sounding confused. _"Uh… Why do you have the other comm?"_

"I-I found it in the trashcan at Splicer's apartment." Alex's voice is broken by sobs.

Zero sighs. _"You heard him, didn't you?"_

Alex covers her mouth and starts to sob. She's so wracked with sorrow she is unable to speak.

"_Listen Alex. I'll find him and bring him back to you. I promise you. I'm not going to leave him behind."_

Alex nods even though he can't see her, but she is still unable to speak.

"_But… Listen I need your help. I don't know where I am, or what happened. All I can tell you is that we were ambushed by mercs and kidnapped. I think by slavers ultimately. I need you to get Vaga and Ram to use their connections to find out where we are. Can you do that for me?"_

"Y-Yes." Alex manages to respond.

"_Good I…" _ Alex hears some muffled voices then loud continuous thumps followed by coughing from Zero. After 5 minutes of this, it finally stops. Zero coughs some more.

"Z-Zero? Are you alright?" Alex asks fearfully.

He coughs and chuckles. _"Yeah. They just got mad at me for breaking their straight jacket."_

"Did they put another one on you?"

"_Nah, I think they know I would've just done it again…"_ A short silence follows. _"Listen Alex. I need to ask a favor of you."_

"Okay. What?"

"_Don't tell Nata where I am."_

Alex frowns in confusion. "Why?"

"_I don't want her to worry about me."_ He responds.

Alex stands and walks into Splicer's room. "Well… well what should I tell her?"

"_I don't know… make something up?"_

"Okay." Alex thinks for a second. "Are there any leads you can point me to? Anything you can do to help?"

"_Uh…"_ There's a short pause. _"Oh! Uh, check Splicer's terminal in the back room for the mission we were doing. It _should_ be the newest one."_

Alex rushes to the backroom and turns on the terminal.

"Okay… Got it… uh… Is it the one at… Galactic Logistics?" She asks.

"_Yeah. That's your lead. Good luck."_

"Thanks Zero." Alex turns off the mic and pockets it.

She downloads the message to her omni-tool and rushes out into the main room of the apartment without turning off the terminal.

She rushes out of the apartment and to the Fast Transit terminal outside. She pays for a ride to Vaga's apartment and opens her omni-tool after it takes off for its destination. She types a message to Vaga first:

_Vaga,_

_I need your help with something. I'm coming by your apartment. It's about Splicer._

_Alex_

She sends it and types one to Ram:

_Ram,_

_Meet me at Vaga's place ASAP. We need your help._

_Alex_

Alex sits back and leans against the door of the car. She only now notices how much she is shaking. She looks down at her hand in her lap and see's that it and her legs are shaking. She curls her fist and presses it against her eyes, trying to fight back tears.

Splicer's words still ring in her ears and cut through her heart. To her, he always seemed so strong and so brave. To hear him break down like that… it was just unbearable for her.

Alex just wanted to be there with him. To be his wall to lean on for once, instead of the other way around. Only now does she realize that he's always listened to _her_ problems, helped _her_ get through them, and had always been _her_ shoulder to lean on. Only now does she realize that she never did the same for him.

This only makes Alex cry harder.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero sits facing the wall panel that opened. He was facing the one they dropped food into when this one opened and a bunch of guys came in to beat him up. He winces as he stands. He's a little sore from the beating, but thankfully the remainder of the straight jacket protected him somewhat.

He walks over to the empty tray of food and sits on the ground with it. It's made of thin aluminum. So it shouldn't be hard to fashion into a weapon.

Zero pins one side of the tray under his foot and he bends it. He then tears the tray in half. He sits down and tears it again into one strip. He continues to tear the strip until he fashions it into a knife or shiv.

He practices stabbing with it a few times. After he's satisfied with it he hides it behind the toilet and sits down on it.

He needs to find a way out of here. But from what he's figured out about the room, the panels can be opened from any part of the room. It also must be made for containing biotics because all his attempts at using his biotics to remove or open the panels have failed.

A panel at the other end of the room opens and an armored batarian walks in, followed by a second, humongous batarian.

The second batarian, the huge one, is hideously disfigured and has plates of metal grafted to his head. Not so much grafted, as messily bolted on.

"Hello… Zero was it?" The smaller batarian says with a smug smile.

Zero scowls at him. "It is."

The smaller batarian approaches Zero more. But the huge one stays near the open wall panel.

Smaller is just a relevant term, he's actually quite large, just not in proportion to the other one.

"Well, I hope we're accommodating you well." The batarian says. "Don't worry. We won't keep you for more than another day or two. See…" The batarian smiles and starts pacing. "As you may have inferred, we're slavers. But we're not your average slavers. See, we started out as just a small band of ambitious young slavers, trading lives for money. However, we had the good fortune of coming across a human named Garret King. He was a biotic, an intelligent and eloquent man, who wasted his skills by becoming a neurosurgeon. But, we quickly discovered that there was something special about him. See he had some unique genetics that gifted him with some odd biological factors, such as a nearly flawless immune system and perfect health. Well we had heard a rumor that the Collectors make an occasional sojourn into the Terminus systems to trade unique peoples for technology. We made contact and traded him for tech. We then sold that tech and made a fortune. So, we now trade special lives for special tech, which leads to lots of cash. We then use that cash to hire mercs to find more special people. And the cycle goes on. Normally we find maybe 4 or 5 unique persons a year. But we've hit the jackpot now! We found you, your friend Jada and Splicer. You're each worth a fortune in tech to the Collectors. Splicer due to his biotics and tech specialties, making him a uniquely intelligent and skilled individual. Jada due to her physical modifications. And you because turian biotics are rare. And you're a powerful one at that. So we'd like to keep you comfortable, yet subdued over the next two days to be safely traded to the Collectors. So to that effect… Par'Thet." The huge batarian pushes himself from the wall. "Subdue our guest."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Alex enters Vaga's apartment. He lounges on a huge sectional couch, sipping some kind of fancy and, likely, alcoholic beverage. Ram sits on another section of the couch nearby, with an unfamiliar and oddly small krogan next to him. Ram stands at the sight of Alex.

"Alex." He says concerned. "What's going on? You look upset."

Alex sighs and walks down the stairs toward them. "Splicer and his team have been taken by slavers. I don't know what they intend to do with them but we need to find them ASAP."

"Taken?" Ram exclaims shocked.

Vaga sits forward, expressing a mix of both concern and interest in his demeanor. "What do you know that might help us?"

Alex opens her omni-tool and opens the job offer message she downloaded to her omni-tool from Splicer's terminal. "Splicer took a job from someone named Gilon Hark. It seemed a simple job. All they had to do was beat up some gangsters at a store called Galactic Logistics. But they were subdued and knocked unconscious there. I need your guys' help to track down who took them and where they are now."

Ram walks off immediately and walks toward the landing pad. "I'm on it. I'll contact my brokers. Hirvio stay here."

The other krogan nods but remains ultimately silent. Vaga stands and walks up to Alex. "You alright?"

She nods and looks down at the floor in sorrow. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"I can tell by your expression." Vaga says with a chuckle. "Listen. Do you know anything else that could help us?"

Alex nods. "I have a comm that is linked with Zero. We can talk to him."

Vaga nods and holds out his hand. "Let me have it."

Alex nods and hands him the earpiece and mic.

Vaga examines it and sighs. "This is for a human. Never mind. Just relay the message for me."

Alex replaces the earpiece in her ear and turns on the mic. "Zero?"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Par'Thet approaches Zero slowly, cracking his knuckles and sneering at him. Zero keeps his arms crossed and pulls his leg back and hooks his toes around the handle of the shiv he fashioned, pulling it out from behind the toilet.

"_Zero?"_ Zero hears Alex say.

Taking this as his cue, Zero roars, flares his biotics and uses it to hurl the makeshift shiv into one Par'Thet's four eyes.

Par'Thet howls in pain and backpedals away. The other batarian looks alarmed and draws a pistol and fires at Zero. He reacts quickly and puts up a biotic barrier to shield himself with. Zero charges forward and biotic punches the batarian, sending him flying into the wall, and the pistol skidding toward the open door.

Zero's eyes dart to the door and he sees Par'Thet holding both the pistol and the makeshift shiv in his hand as he glares at Zero from behind the doorway in the dark. Zero charges at him but Par'Thet slams the panel shut. Zero stops and sighs in disappointment.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Alex yelps at the loud roar Zero let out that was followed by interference. "Zero? What's happening?"

No response. She doesn't even hear anything. Panicked, Alex removes the device from her ear and examines it.

"It short circuited." Vaga mumbles examining the earpiece.

"Dammit, no!" Alex runs her hands over her head and stomps on the ground in anger. "No, no!"

"Now calm down. Maybe someone can repair it for us." Vaga suggests.

"Who?"

Vaga ponders for a moment. "Well… I recall Splicer mentioning a guy who made all his stuff for him. If I had to guess he fashioned this thing too."

"Right, I remember him saying that too… Do you remember his name?" Alex asks hopefully, at the same time wracking her brain for the answer to that question.

Vaga is silent for a long time. Finally he curses and shakes his head. "No sorry I can't."

Alex sighs in defeat and plops onto the couch.

Vaga sighs too and sits next to her. "Don't worry. We'll find them."

Alex doesn't respond. Vaga frowns and looks over at her. She's asleep. Vaga grunts with laughter and covers her with a blanket.

Vaga sighs and nods at Alex while directing his attention to Hirvio. "Girls."

Hirvio smirks but remains otherwise silent.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

346… 347… 348… 349… 350.

Jada stops doing pushups because she's bored. She quickly swivels herself into sit up position.

Before she can begin however someone else enters the room through a panel near the dozing asari guard.

"Altea!" The turian guard exclaims shaking her. "Altea! We have a situation at cell 21!"

The asari guard, apparently named Altea, stands and follows the guard through the open panel. She doesn't close it behind her, however.

Jada stands and walks over to the edge of the bubble to see if she can hear what's going on. She sees people running past the open doorway in the dark towards something to her right. After a few seconds the room explodes with a collective "OH!" From many guards.

Whatever's going on out there, either Zero or Splicer is causing it.

"Ah fuck!" She hears someone with a deep explosive voice roar. "My eye! My fucking eye!"

"What he do?" Someone else asks.

"He fucking threw a shiv into my eye!" The deep voice roars back.

"You fucking left Alla'Ghas in there! He's a goner!" Another yells in outrage.

"You did the right thing." Jada recognizes the voice instantly. It's the man in the clown mask from the first night. "Alla'Ghas was all talk anyway." The man barks with laughter. "Look at him beg! How pathetic!"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

A nearby groaning bring him back to the task at hand. Zero looks over at the batarian slowly. The batarian clutches at his ribcage and groans in pain.

Zero walks over to him slowly. He crouches next to him and the batarian looks at him in fear.

Zero smirks and grabs the batarians face so his eyes are locked with his.

"Remember my face?" Zero whispers to him. "Remember my name?"

The batarian keeps his eyes locked on Zero's.

"Say it." Zero whispers. "Say my name."

The batarian stays silent and Zero tightens his grip on his face. The batarian cries out weakly as Zero's talons bite into his flesh and draw blood.

"Say it."

"Zero."

Zero stands but keeps his grip on the batarian's head. "Again."

"Zero!" The batarian cries out in pain as Zero drags him across the floor.

"Again!" Zero roars.

"Zero! Please!" The batarian squirms and begs and holds Zero's arm, trying to unhook Zero's talons from his face.

Zero stops in the center of the room and steps over the batarian while keeping his hold on the batarian's head.

"Say my name!" Zero roars into the batarian's face.

"Zero!"

Zero rams the back of the batarian's head against the floor and some blood dribbles onto the floor. "Again!"

"Zero!" The batarian cries in a weaker voice.

Zero rams the batarian's head against the floor again and there is now a small stain of blood on the floor. "Again!"

"Zero." The batarian's voice is somewhat slurred now and his grip on Zero's arm slackens.

Zero again rams the batarians head on the floor and there is a pool of blood now. "Again!"

"Zero…" The batarian goes somewhat limp and his eyes which are locked on Zero's face glaze over.

Zero pulls the batarian close to his face. "Remember my face!" He rams the batarian's head against the floor. "Remember my name!" He rams the batarian's head against the floor. "What is my name?"

"Z-Z-Zero…" The batarian has lost control of his body and he is convulsing. "Zero… Zero… Zero…"

"My name is Zero! Know my name! Know my face! It is the last thing you'll ever see! It is the only thing in your mind!" The batarian keeps repeating Zero's name. "I am Zero! And I've fought worse people than you!"

Zero lifts the batarian from the floor and holds the batarian up to his face, one armed. "One more time."

"Ze-" A pulse of biotic energy pulses through Zero's body to his arm and the batarian's head explodes.

The corpse collapses to the ground and Zero kneels next to it panting. Zero stays kneeled next to the twitching beheaded corpse of the batarian for a time.

Finally after a while, Zero stands and wipes blood from his face. "Remember my face. Remember my name. Take revenge for your life, in another."

Zero is familiar with batarian tradition. The soul leaves the body through the eyes. No eyes means this one can't leave. Either someone will come to recover the body and help the soul along its way. Or they were all watching and they'll know. They'll know that if they come in here, they're dead.****

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So guys, I didn't know this but you can have book covers now? That's awesome! If there're any talented aspiring artists who read and like this story, then I invite you to... to... I don't know. Draw something! **

**Anyways, I hope you like Zero being a badass! Remember, the next couple of chapters are about the OCs, like Zero, so if you'd like to review, talk about them. That's a suggestion, not an order, by the way.**

**Anyways, thanks for reading. I'll see you next Tuesday.**

**Mockingbird79**


	27. Chapter 27 TC P 3: Live and Get Loud

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>Life is pain, and enjoyment of love is an anesthetic."<strong>

**~Cesare Pavese~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 27: The Chain<strong>

**Part 3: Live and Get Loud**

**6:16 AM May 11, 2182**

* * *

><p>Zero sits against the wall, one knee raised and his arm resting on it. He stares sternly at the batarian with the mush for a head in the middle of the room.<p>

He still doesn't have a plan for escape or anything, but he sent a message. He told them that Zero is not your average captive and that he isn't going to let them gain the upper hand. It was stupid of them to assume that they did. All they did was lock him in a cell, after all.

Zero has to find a way out of here soon. He's running out of time.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"How's it coming?" Vaga mumbles watching Nata work on the small ear-bud.

"Slowly." She responds. "It's difficult with such tiny parts. Whoever built this must have the hands of a surgeon."

Vaga straightens and looks over his shoulder to make sure Alex is still asleep. Vaga frowns. "Nata, you wouldn't happen to have noticed where Hirvio went?"

She shakes her head and doesn't look away from the microcomm. "No. I was focused on this."

Vaga walks down the hall into the media room. He jumps as a small chair floats past his face. He enters the ring of hovering objects orbiting Hirvio, who glows with a biotic aura.

He has his fist raised near his face and he looks incredibly focused.

"Your biotics appear to be developing nicely." Vaga says approaching him.

Hirvio grunts in response.

"You know, we used to hang out a lot when you were younger." Vaga says with a smile as he stands next to him. "I remember when you were just a baby. It's pretty clear since it was only a few months ago. I'll never get used to how krogan grow up so quick."

Hirvio looks up at him and lets the objects float down gently to the ground.

Vaga nods. "Yeah. You drooled a lot. I remember that distinctly."

Hirvio blinks and eyes Vaga, but remains silent and expressionless.

An awkward silence follows.

"Carry on." Vaga mumbles walking back into the rec room. Hirvio digs into his pocket and removes an inhaler. He takes a breath from it before returning it to his pocket and reaffirming his stance.

Vaga returns to Nata's side. He sits down next to her, his back against the desk. He closes his eyes with a sigh.

Funny. Is all that comes to mind for him. Vaga knows that he should be more worried. But now the situation is backwards from the first time. This time Splicer is the one who's being held captive and Vaga's going to be the one to break him out.

Funny. Vaga smiles.

"Done." Nata says with a pleasant tone. "I think it should work now."

She hands Vaga the ear-bud microcomm and mic and stands as he does. "So what was this for again?"

"Alex can explain it better." Vaga says striding over to her. He shakes her gently and her eyes flutter open. "Alex. I called Nata and she fixed the comm."

Alex suddenly looks concerned and looks at Nata across the room. She leans in close to Vaga. "Did you tell her what it was for or what's going on?"

He frowns and shakes his head. "Not yet… why?"

"Zero asked me not to tell her where he was. He doesn't want her to worry." Alex whispers to him.

Zero nods. "I get it. But what should we tell her it's for?"

Alex shrugs. "Make something up?"

"What are you guys talking about?" Nata asks from immediately next to them.

They both jump and clunk their foreheads together. It hurt Alex a little more.

"Uh…" Vaga starts but is unable to think of something even after a long time.

Nata blinks at him. "Right. Well, what's this microcommunicator for?"

"Uh." Alex starts. "It's for, um. Communicating."

"Ok… With whom?"

"People…?" Vaga offers.

Nata rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Okay. What aren't you two telling me?"

Alex sighs. "Should we just tell her, Vaga?"

Vaga nods, defeated. Hirvio walks up just then and looks at each person in interest.

"What are you guys talking about?" Nata demands.

Alex sighs. "Yesterday night, Splicer, Zero and Jada were kidnapped by slavers."

Nata blinks a few times. "O-Oh… W-What's the comm for?"

"I found it in the trashcan yesterday night." Alex pauses and recollects herself. She decides to spare Nata the details of _how_ she found it. "It is one of three. This one is supposed to be Jada's but she didn't take it for whatever reason. Splicer and Zero have the other two."

"Okay… Can we talk to them?" Nata asks nervously. Her voice quivers.

"Only Zero. Splicer got put into stasis." Alex pauses and forces back tears.

Nata holds out her hand. "Can I talk to him?"

Alex looks at Vaga.

"The thing is Nata…" Vaga pauses nervously. "We think that… It would be best if you didn't talk to him."

Nata's hand falls to her side. "Why?"

"He's under a lot of pressure right now." Alex explains, deliberately choosing her words carefully. "Being in contact with you might distract him or make him hesitate on something and that could get him or Jada or Splicer killed."

Nata stands there for a while unmoving. Finally she nods. "Okay."

Vaga, Alex, and Hirvio all let out a breath of relief. Nata walks into a separate room, very slowly.

Alex turns the microcomm on and places it in her ear. She also turns the mic on and holds it to her mouth.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

The sudden sound of his name being spoken in the otherwise silent room makes Zero jump.

"_Zero?"_ Alex asks again. _"Are you there?"_

"Yeah. I'm here." Zero says. He can even hear how tired he sounds.

"_Good. It works."_

"What?"

"_The comm short-circuited last night and we had to get Nata to repair it."_ Zero feels his heart fly from his chest.

"Did… You didn't tell her did you?"

"… _No."_

Zero breathes out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Spirits, you scared me Alex."

"_Sorry. How're things on your end?"_ She asks.

Zero looks at the batarian's corpse. "Making progress. You?"

"_Ram is investigating the job. We haven't heard back yet."_

"And Vaga?"

"_He wants to speak with you, actually."_

There's a short pause and Zero hears the sound microphones make when they're switched hands or rubbed against something.

"_Zero?"_ Zero hears Vaga, whom he isn't exactly well acquainted, say. _"How you doing? You alright?"_

"Been better. What do you need?" There's a short pause.

"_When we find where you guys are, I'll come to get you." _Vaga starts. _"Thing is, I'd rather not assault a professional slaver gang unprepared and I'm a little short on muscle right now. Right now it's just me. Huh? …What? What're you… You want to come too? You sure? What do you think Ram would say? …Well I don't care. You might be useful. Okay scratch that, it might be two. But that's still not even close to enough. Do you know anybody, who knows you guys, who might be willing to help?"_

Zero ponders the thought for a moment. "Well nobody comes to mind… Wait… Actually? There is someone who I think would help." Zero smiles. He can't wait to see the carnage.

* * *

><p><strong>8:39 AM May 11, 2182<strong>

Vaga walks into the dirty shanty house in the slums of the Teyseri Ward followed by Hirvio.

"Hello?" He calls into the shanty house.

Vaga hears a grunt from somewhere downstairs. "Down here. I'll be just another second."

Vaga looks over his shoulder at Hirvio. "That was the deepest voice I've ever heard."

Suddenly the house and everything in it rattles as whatever is downstairs takes the first step upstairs. Vaga cringes and waits in horror for whatever creature is down there to reveal itself.

When it does, Vaga is somewhat disappointed and impressed at the same time.

A krogan stands before him. For some reason, with that build, Vaga expected something else like… an Elcor or something. But he's just a krogan. A prime example of one as well. He stands not very tall, but still fairly massive. The krogan is missing a shirt and Vaga gets to see just how muscular this one is. Just chords, veins and ripples, nothing else, line this beast's body. Vaga can actually clearly see the individual muscle strands running through each muscle group because they're so massive. The krogan is a pale green in skin color but his head plate and scales are a dark green, almost black and his entire body is scarred. But not so much as his face and head which is road-mapped by shrapnel scars.

This one is going to do some damage.

"Jorgal Tyrannax." The awe inspiring krogan grunts. "Best armor and gun smith in the galaxy. How can I help you?"

Vaga clears his throat. "This may sound odd, but I need your help saving some of my friends from slavers."

Tyrannax grunts a laugh and turns away to walk upstairs. "Get out."

"You know them!" Vaga calls after him. "Splicer and his team!"

Vaga sees Tyrannax's feet stop their ascent. He watches them turn around and come back down.

Tyrannax sighs and sits down on the stairs. "Alright. I'll bite. What?"

"They were captured by slavers and I need some backup to get them out of their ship. I'm short-handed and I need some muscle. All I have right now is him." Vaga jabs a thumb at Hirvio.

Tyrannax leans over and examines Hirvio. "You kid? You're going to help him?"

Hirvio nods. After a short and awkward silence, Hirvio takes an inhaler out of his pocket and takes a breath from it.

Tyrannax frowns. "You _do_ need help. What's in it for me?"

Vaga shrugs. "I can pay you."

"How much?"

"Uh… 10,000 sound good?"

Tyrannax shrugs. "Sure, I would've done it for free. But you got a deal."

Vaga rolls his eyes and shakes his hand. "Good. Glad to have you on board."

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

Vaga enters his apartment from the atrium followed by Tyrannax, who's looking around and around the place like a museum, and Hirvio who stares dead straight ahead.

They approach Ram and Alex who sit on the couch together. Nata is nowhere in sight.

"Ram." Vaga calls as he walks down the stairs leading into the main lounge room. "What have you got for us?"

He stands and opens his omni-tool. "I have a trail. I looked into that Galactic Logistics store first. As it turns out the property has been abandoned for years."

"Abandoned?" Vaga frowns in confusion. "On the Citadel?"

"People pay out the ass for property on the Citadel." Alex comments to add to the confusion of an _abandoned_ property on the Citadel.

"Yes well that confused me as well." Ram explains. "Well I looked into it and the property isn't totally abandoned. Someone named Craven Maverick bought the place after the previous owner died."

"Let me guess…" Alex starts rubbing her temples. "The previous owner was…"

"Yep." Ram says with a light sigh. "Gilon Hark."

"Alright make sure I have this right." Tyrannax says loudly, instantly catching everyone's attention. "Splicer and his team got a job from Gilon Hark. It turned out to be a set up to kidnap them? Why?"

"We don't know." Ram responds. "… Who are you by the way?"

"Jorgal Tyrannax. Best weapon and armor smith in the galaxy. And I'm going to kill some slavers."

"Oh… Good." Ram mumbles, seemingly intimidated by Tyrannax's challenging stare. "Anyways. I looked up this Craven Maverick guy and he's been listed as dead for almost 20 years now. He was formally in the Alliance Ground Division and he was listed as KIA. However, I did some deep digging and a man matching his description is a known merc leader of a ten man human merc team known as the Carpet Baggers. They primarily work out of the Terminus Systems and are known to work with drug traffickers and other low lives."

"What about slavers? Do they work with them?" Vaga asks.

Ram shrugs. "Apparently they do but only very infrequently."

"Is it enough to go off of? To find where they might be?" Alex asks looking up at Ram.

Ram shakes his head. "No, sorry. They're a discreet group so it'd be tough to track them down, let alone the slavers."

Vaga sighs. "Do you have anything else?"

Ram smiles wide. "Yes. The Carpet Baggers have no official ship so they often book shuttle passages. As you all know it's cheaper to buy for a group over a single individual person, so I check all shuttle departures on the day of Splicer and his team's disappearance and I came up with nothing that would even remotely match what theirs might be."

"So you're saying they're still on the Citadel?" Tyrannax asks in disbelief and slight disappointment.

Ram shakes his head. "No. But here's the good part. By complete coincidence I happened to be listening to news reports and a C-Sec Dock worker was arrested for letting a gang of batarian slavers onto the Citadel and accepting a bribe to do it."

"So what you're saying is that the slavers are transporting the mercs? And that wherever the slavers are, Splicer and his team are?" Tyrannax asks nobody in particular.

"Pretty much." Ram says nodding.

"That's our lead?" Vaga asks standing.

"That's our lead." Ram answers.

"Alright. Tyrannax, come with me, we're going to do some… interrogating." Vaga says with a smile. "Ram I want you working on what you can find again. Alex, you hang out at Splicer's place and keep in touch with Zero. And Hirvio… why don't you stick around here and practice your magic tricks. We'll be back soon."

Everyone in the room walks away, except for Hirvio. On some level he's angry, furious actually. He could blow that pompous turian to oblivion and the hell that follows with his mind alone. But… then what good would that do? Then again… What does Hirvio care if that Splicer guy dies? He doesn't even know him… But it's important to his father… But… Then again… His father is weak.

Hirvio survived the Blue Suns onslaught alone. And he could do it again. Or he could've done it longer. Oh well. This way… Hirvio gets to kill again.

The room is silent now, with everyone gone. Hirvio sighs and sits down and thinks about how he's misunderstood and not interpreted right. Hirvio sighs and decides that he'll practice his "Magic Tricks."

He stands and stretches and raises a fist to his face. But something breaks his focus. Something small, yet disturbing enough to distract him. He looks up and looks for the source of the noise. It sounds like a muffled TV or something.

Hirvio starts to wander the massive apartment. And after a long and mostly fruitless attempt at finding the source of the noise, Hirvio curses the pompous turian for being such an ass and having so much money.

Hirvio stops at the top of a flight of stairs to catch his breath. He takes his inhaler out and takes a deep breath from it. This little sojourn has been quite taxing on him. Especially with his physical limitations.

Hirvio continues to search for the noise. Finally he comes to a place where it seems to be very loud, what appears to be some kind of lounge room or something. It's a small circular room with chairs and tables all over and it's dark but not pitch black. The light comes from a long aquarium that illuminates the room with a dark blue and glistening light that makes it look like the ceiling and floor is made of water.

It's oddly soothing. But somewhat unnecessary, in Hirvio's opinion. The noise is definitely coming from in here. But it's not a TV because there is no TV. It's that quarian girl, Nata. Hirvio has vague memories of her. Always kind and high spirited.

But she's sobbing right now.

Hirvio cringes and considers walking away. He sighs silently and walks up behind her. He waits for a second, to see if she'd notice him. When she doesn't, Hirvio rolls his eyes and sits down next to her.

She looks up at him then looks back down. "I'm so scared, Hirvio."

He looks at her and thinks about how comfy these chairs are.

"I know you're too young to understand all this but…" She pauses and Hirvio feels slightly offended. In his opinion, Hirvio was more adult than any of them. "But Zero is my world now… I still have my Pilgrimage but… I'd give that up for him. That's so selfish of me! I know I must help my people but what will I do? I'm just one quarian. And I… I want to be selfish. You know?"

She looks up at him, expecting some sort of response. Hirvio, unable to speak, considers an appropriate gesture and inwardly hates himself for what he's about to do. He reaches out and places a hand on her shoulder.

Nata moves in quickly and hugs him tightly. "Thank you."

Hirvio, taken aback, doesn't return the hug for a moment. He's never been hugged before. It feels… nice. He returns the hug and stays silent because that's all he can do.

After a while Nata pulls away and stares at him. "You're really sweet, you know?"

Hirvio feels like he got kicked in the quad.

"I feel better. Thank you for coming to comfort me." Nata stands leaves the room.

Hirvio rests his chin in his hand and his elbow on his knee and watches the fish swim. As he sits there, he thinks about how she's a stupid girl and how she really is shellfish. He smirks as he watches the shellfish crawl along the bottom of the tank.

He sits there and thinks about how quarians are a lot like shellfish. Stubborn. Resilient. Stupid. And selfish. But especially stupid.

Hirvio takes out his inhaler and takes a deep breath.

* * *

><p><em><strong>4:19 AM December 12, 2180<strong>_

_Jada laughs at another good one, told by the 1__st__ lieutenant._

"_Jada!" Someone calls behind her. _

_Jada looks over her shoulder at the batarian messenger. She raises her arm._

_The batarian hands her a datapad and runs off._

"_What's it say?" Her close friend, Jentha asks._

"_Says for me and you to report to Cathka ASAP." Jada says standing and handing the datapad over to the 1__st__ lieutenant. _

_The 1__st__ lieutenant nods. "Dismissed. See what he wants and hurry back."_

_She nods and leads Jentha out of the room and onto the walkway that overlooks much of Omega._

"_I can't wait to get out of here." Jentha mumbles as she follows Jada. "This place is a shithole."_

_Jada nods. "Got that right. Hey? Let's make a pledge. If one of us gets out of Omega before the other, we'll get the other out ASAP."_

_Jentha nods and smiles. "Deal."_

_She shakes Jada's hand and they enter Cathka's garage. _

_They walk up to his desk in the corner and salute him._

"_At ease." He commands, standing. "Follow me."_

_Jentha and Jada look at each other and follow Cathka out of the garage and into an elevator. The elevator starts moving up and it's silent and uncomfortable for a while._

"_I got orders from Tarak to bring my two best to him." Cathka says after a while. "Apparently it's orders from the top. We'll see won't we?"_

_Jada just nods and the rest of the short trip is silent. Once out of the elevator, Cathka leads the pair to Tarak's office. Tarak looks up at them once they enter._

"_Cathka, good. These two?" Tarak asks him._

_He nods. "These are my brightest and best. They're not the highest rank but they're good at what they do."_

_Tarak looks thoughtful. "I need people at a physical plateau. Either of you two think you're at that?"_

_Jentha and Jada look at each other. They both raise their hands._

"_Okay… Good. But I only need one. Which is stronger?"_

_Jentha instantly sighs and drops her hand._

"_Good. You and Cathka can go." Cathka looks angered but he obeys and he leads Jentha out of the office._

"_Down to business." Tarak says sitting down. He picks up a datapad and hands it to Jada._

"_What's this?"_

_He locks his fingers together. "Reassignment."_

"_What?" She quickly skims the datapad. "What's this? Experimental assignment? What the fuck is that?"_

"_Watch you tone." Tarak snaps at her. "This is triple your current salary. Quit complaining. Report there immediately."_

"_Now?" Jada frowns. "What about my stuff?"_

"_You don't have stuff anymore." Tarak responds looking down at his work. "Get going."_

* * *

><p><em><strong>2 Days Later…<strong>_

"_Now lie back." The turian in the white and blue lab outfit says._

_Jada lies back in the metal box and gets comfortable._

"_I'm going to strap you down now. Don't worry, it's for your safety." The turian says as he straps Jada into the metal box._

_Jada watches him work until he has to strap the one across her forehead. "So explain this procedure to me again?"_

"_We're going to inject you with an experimental serum. It's going to make you stronger, even more so than you are now." The doctor explains. "Within seconds. Your physical plateau will peak."_

"_Okay… sounds good." Jada says watching as the doctor prepares several large containers of fluid. "How successful has this been?"_

_The doctor inserts the containers into the lid of the box. "It hasn't."_

_He pulls it closed._

"_Wait! What?" Jada yells. "Hello! I don't want this anymore! Let me out!"_

_Suddenly large needles extend from the walls of the box and insert themselves into Jada from many angles including her palms, neck, face and feet. Jada gasps in pain and discomfort._

"_Activating injection process." Jada hears the turian doctor say._

_She suddenly feels like she's on fire and she would start writhing if not for the straps. It's so painful she can't even scream. Her veins feel like their filling with molten lead and her body feels like it's being ripped to pieces._

_Jada isn't afraid of dying though. Instead she welcomes the challenge. Nothing like a good fight, she always says._

_She growls under her teeth and fights the straps holding her down. She feels them giving way. They feel so frail now._

_They snap suddenly and Jada throws her hands up against the lid of the box. She pushes as hard as she can and the lid flips off the box and onto the floor._

_She jumps out of the box and stares at the turian doctor._

_He's smiling. As is she._

* * *

><p><strong>Present Day…<strong>

Jada pulls from the memory and stands from the floor. More exercise now. She's getting bored with meditation and reminiscing.

* * *

><p><em><strong>21:00, Exact Date Unknown, 2176<strong>_

_Zero lies flat on his stomach and waits. He feels a pat on his back._

_He starts crawling forward very slowly, keeping his shotgun flat against his chest. He crawls to the edge of the brush and joins his platoon commander._

_The commander hands him his binoculars. "3 degrees North-Northeast. Double check my tags."_

_Zero nods and looks through the binoculars at the outpost. "12 hostiles. You got them all."_

"_Roger." The commander nods and takes his binoculars back. "Cover me. I'm moving in with 2__nd__."_

_Zero nods and signals the sniper on his team forward. Zero takes a position beside him and the sniper readies his rifle while 2__nd__ squad forms up on the commander._

_The commander reaches back and takes the two-way comm from RTO. He hands it to Zero._

"_Keep that in your ear at all times." The commander orders him. "No exceptions."_

_Zero nods and the commander and 2__nd__ squad slide down the hill toward the outpost._

_Zero watches their progress carefully, they seem to be remaining unseen and are making quick progress. They should be at the next outpost within the hour._

_Then shit happens. _

_The sniper taps Zero's shoulder. "Lieutenant! We've been spotted!"_

"_Commander!" Zero says into his comm. "We've been spotted we have to fall back."_

"_Received." Came the response. "We're almost at the base. We're still unseen we can-"_

_An orbital strike suddenly hits the base and it is obliterated. Zero leaps to his feet as does every other man in his cabal._

"_Lieutenant!" Zero's 1__st__ sergeant yells. "We got incoming gunships! We have to leave!"_

"_Z-Zero…" Zero's heart feels like it stops beating._

_Zero snatches the sniper rifle from the marksman's hands and looks down at the crater. He looks and looks to confirm his worst fear._

_He finds it. His commander is still alive._

_He zooms the scope and cringes away from it in horror. "Aw fuck…"_

_The commander lies on the ground, lower body blown to a mess of pieces and his body is being held together by the smallest pieces of flesh. He's disemboweled and burnt severely but alive._

"_Z-Zero… Help me…"_

_Zero throws the rifle down and runs both his hands over his fringe._

"_Lieutenant! We have to leave now! 6 gunships inbound! ETA 1 minute!"_

_Zero stares directly at the commander's mutilated body at the edge of the crater. He can also see the incoming gunships._

"_Move out!" Zero roars. "Retreat south through the forest!"_

_The remaining cabal darts back into the forest._

"_I'm sorry." Zero says, his voice wracked with sobs. "I'm so sorry."_

"_Z-Zero… Zero… Please."_

_Because it was a direct order and the platoon commander is still not dead, according to the Turian Hierarchy's 19__th__ military doctrine, all orders must be carried out until giver or receiver are deceased._

_So Zero can't take the comm out of his ear._

"_Zero… please don't leave me."_

"_I'm so sorry."_

* * *

><p><strong>Present Day…<strong>

Zero shakes the memory from mind. He refocuses on the dead batarian. Another day and they haven't even tried to get him out. They haven't come in at all. They haven't even fed him. Zero would've just thrown it away.

He discovered it suppresses biotic abilities pretty quickly, so most of his meals went down the toilet so far.

So Zero's been pretty hungry. And to make matters worse?

The batarian is starting to smell.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Hey man." The guard says to the other guard, laying a hand on his shoulder.

The other guard looks up at him from the chair. "Hey what's up?"

"I'm here to relieve you." He responds.

The other guard stands and stretches. "Finally."

"So what am I doing?" The guard asks sitting in the chair and looking into the cage.

"Do just what you're doing." The other guard says pointing at the turian prisoner. "Watch him and make sure he doesn't do anything fishy. If he does, radio it in."

"Got it. And if anything goes wrong?"

"How? He's in there, it'll be fine."

The other guard leaves and the first guard sighs.

"This is going to be a long day…" The guard mumbles to himself.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero sighs and stands. He readjusts the remnant of his straight jacket over his torso and walks over to the batarian.

He hasn't touched him since he killed him. Zero drags him over to the toilet and sits him up next to it. He kneels down in front of the corpse and starts fishing through the pockets of his armor.

"Hm…" Zero mumbles as he starts dumping objects onto the floor. A pen might be useful. A candy bar, useless to Zero. A packet of cigarettes, again useless. A packet of Red Sand that might be useful. Nothing else.

Zero places his new possessions in his straight jacket, against his body. He then sits on the toilet and rests his arms on his knees.

He needs a way out. But there isn't one…

He pounds a fist against his forehead. "Think! Think goddammit! The answer is probably right under your ass, you're just too stupid to realize…"

Zero looks down at the toilet. Suddenly he realizes that the only wall they don't come through is this wall, the one with the toilet on it. Zero stands and looks behind the toilet. Attached to the wall not the floor.

Zero gets a good grip on the toilet and lifts with his legs. He adds pressure with his arms and his back and uses all his strength against it. A satisfying creaking comes with his effort and he feels water spraying his face. But he just keeps going.

Until it gives and the toilet gets separated from the wall. Zero falls back and drops it on the floor. The whole wall panel it was attached to is still attached to it.

Zero stands and walks over to the new hole in the wall. A bunch of pipes and wiring greets Zero's eyes. Zero grabs a handful of wiring and rips it out of the wall.

And the lights shut off.

"Okay… Progress." Zero mumbles looking around at the pitch blackness.

He hears a noise behind him and somebody enters the room. Zero ducks and moves around to another corner of the room.

An omni-tool appears and a bright beam of light appears from it and starts to scan the room. The dull orange light illuminates the turian guard but little else.

The guard squints and looks around the room slowly.

Zero sees the beam of light pass over his pile of empty food trays in the corner on the other side of the room. Zero smirks as an idea pops into his head.

After the beam passes over the dead batarian and starts to head his way, Zero raises his arm and points it at the batarian slaver corpse and lifts it with his biotics. It is a considerable strain to do so, but he manages.

He waits until the beam of light is just about to reach him. After it is a few feet away, Zero hurls the corpse in the general direction of the empty trays. The result is an incredibly noisy banging.

The guard jumps and whirls around and points his omni-tool and pistol at the corpse and trays. "The fuck?"

The guard approaches the corpse slowly and cautiously. Zero wastes no time and charges at him. He uses his biotics and reaches out past the guard to an empty tray in the corner. He throws his arm back and sends the tray flying into guards face.

With a grunt of pain, the guard starts to stumble back toward Zero. Zero keeps his arm back and closes his fist and he starts to roar and muster all his rage and strength.

His aura blows up to powerful proportions and Zero hurls his brightly glowing fist into the back of the guard as they reach one another.

With a cry, the guard flies into the wall, not 5 feet away from him, with such incredible speed that he bounces and flies back straight over Zero's head and into the middle of the room.

Zero collides with the wall and leans against it panting. He looks back at the guard's corpse which is easily visible due to the light coming from his omni-tool. Zero walks up to it, stumbling slightly.

He kneels next to the dead guard and pulls the shotgun from his back and turns him over onto his back.

The guard's eyes are opened slightly and his mandibles are slack and blood dribbles from his mouth. Zero closes the guard's eyes and starts to search the body. The armor looks like it'd be too small for Zero, besides more guards will be coming soon, so he just removes the guard's bracers and belt. The belt is a little big so it sags slightly. Zero takes the guard's pistol and omni-tool and attaches each to his belt and wrist respectively. He searches the guard's pockets quickly and finds a grenade, a datapad, and an energy bar.

Zero quickly scarfs down the bar and stands. The shotgun dangles loosely at his side but he holds it tight, ready to fire. Zero doesn't think he could last another biotic attack.

Zero steps through the open panel and finds he is free.

Well, not entirely.

He's still stuck on this ship and he has to find his friends.

Zero smiles. "Let the games begin."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So here's the thing… Ugh. *Rubs face in utter disappointment* the Moderators of may purge the site of, basically, all M rated fan fics. That's… a lot of horse shit. That means that a countless number of serious and well written stories will be removed from the site. This story is susceptible to the purge as well. If not for me, sign the petition to move against it for some of the other Fan Fics you love. Whether you read Harry Potter fics, Hunger Games fics, Mass Effect fics, Naruto fics, or any other fics of any kinds, you will lose a countless number of your favorite stories. We're at about 28,000 signatures out of the new milestone of 35,000. The more signatures we get, the more the moderators will see that this isn't a good idea. The link to the forum about the petition and the purge will be on my profile. The link to the petition site will be on the forum. If you love Fan Fiction and the creativity it gives you, then sign the petition, please. Whether you are a reader or an author or both, please sign it.**

**Thank you,  
>Mockingbird79<strong>


	28. Chapter 28 TC P 4: The Long Walk

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>Adversities such as being homeless and going to prison has made many people stronger."<strong>

**~Philip Emeagwali~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 28: The Chain<strong>

**Part 4: The Long Walk**

**2:14 PM May 11, 2182**

* * *

><p>Vaga ducks under the C-Sec officer as he flies over his head and onto a table. Vaga stands and looks at the groaning C-Sec officer in surprise. He stumbles to the side as Tyrannax rams past him and strides toward the C-Sec officer.<p>

Tyrannax picks him up and slams him against the wall. "WHERE ARE THE SLAVERS?"

"I don't know!" The officer screams back. "Don't! NO!"

Tyrannax hurls him one-armed across the room again into a pile of crates.

With a cry the officer knocks over the tall stack of crates and lies in a crumpled heap among them. Tyrannax strides over and pulls him out of the boxes.

He slams him onto the top of one and growls at him. "I'M LOSING MY PATIENCE! WHERE ARE THEY?"

"Stop!" The officer cries protecting his bruised face. "Just stop!"

"I will kill you." Tyrannax snarls.

Vaga brushes himself off and walks over and leans against a wall. "You should just tell him. He will kill you. I wouldn't put it past him."

The officer's eyes dart from Vaga who just shrugs to Tyrannax's marbled pine needle green eyes. And his eyes widen at the sight of the murder in Tyrannax's eyes.

"I'll ask, one more time. Tell me." Tyrannax growls.

"Okay! I don't know where they are! But, I know where they're going… roughly."

"Where?" Vaga asks pushing himself from the wall.

"Omega. Their ship has pretty poor fuel capacity so they'll make frequent stops. They probably won't get there until the 13th."

"Why there?" Vaga asks.

"They're going to sell Splicer and his team to the Collectors." The officer responds cringing at every breath Tyrannax takes.

"Collectors?" Vaga frowns. "I thought they were a myth."

"They're real." Tyrannax mumbles.

Vaga approaches the C-Sec officer and Tyrannax pulls away but keeps his hand on the officer's neck.

Vaga leans in. "What else can you give us?"

The officer opens his omni-tool. "I had a feeling taking that bribe would bite me in the ass… I guessed right, clearly. So I recorded the signal registration of the ship. You can use it to track the ship if you need to."

Vaga receives the information on his omni-tool and smiles as he goes over the information. "I think we're done here."

"What should we do with him?" Tyrannax asks, snarling at the C-Sec officer.

"Leave him." Vaga says as he connects to the extranet. "I'm booking a priority express shuttle to Omega. We should get there in a day or two."

Tyrannax straightens and tosses the officer aside like a wet towel. "Let's get the kid and get underway."

Vaga leads Tyrannax out of the warehouse and into the main room.

He halts and glares at his omni-tool. "Dammit! All flights unavailable…"

"Doesn't Splicer have a ship?" Tyrannax asks.

Vaga nods. "Yeah but it's being overhauled right now, we can't use it."

Tyrannax sighs. "Then how are we getting to Omega?"

"I don't know…" Vaga sighs in frustration. "Let's just head back to my place and figure something out."

Tyrannax nods. "Not a good plan but it's something…"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero takes careful steps forward along the walkway. He's in a long dark room lined with cube-shaped cells, from which the light in the room comes. Each one brightly is lit and is transparent from his point of view and he can see inside. Most are empty.

Except one.

Zero spots Jada in a cell. She's guarded by a lone and bored looking asari. Zero strides toward it with a purpose. He walks up to the wall of the cube and examines it, looking for a way to open it. Eventually he just nudges a panel and it pops open. Zero takes a step in and swings his head through. The asari looks confused for a second and then alarmed. Before she can even stand Zero blasts her with the shotgun. She falls backward on her chair and goes limp against the wall.

"Zero!" Jada yells from inside the weird bubble shield. "I never thought I'd be so happy to see you're ugly mug!"

Zero smirks and walks up to the bubble. "Thanks… how do I get this open?"

Jada shrugs. "I have no idea. It's practically impenetrable."

Zero frowns. "I got out of my cell by disconnecting the power. Tear the toilet off the wall and rip the wiring out. We'll see if that works."

Jada nods and walks over to the toilet she hammers a fist on it and it instantly tears from the wall and falls onto the floor. She throws the toilet and panel aside, one-handed, and examines the wiring and pipes while avoiding the water spraying at her.

She grabs a handful of the wiring and tears it out of the wall. The lights shut off instantly but the shields remain active.

"Fuck." Zero curses examining one of the shield pylons. "They must be on a separate power supply. I'm going to go look for it. Sit tight." Zero puts his shotgun down behind the dead asari. "I'm leaving this here for you. Don't worry I'll be back soon."

Zero jogs off and leaves the room.

"Wait!" Jada yells at him. "I have to pee dammit!"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Vaga enters his apartment, somewhat angry. Nelyna rushes up to him, seeming extremely panicked.

"Splicer, Zero, and Jada were kidnapped by slavers?" She screams in his face. "Why didn't anybody tell me?"

Vaga shrugs. "I don't know. Just calm down!"

Vaga starts walking and Nelyna dogs him closely.

Nelyna barrages Vaga with questions. "Where are they? What happened? Are they alright? What's going on right now? What do you guys know? When did this happen? What-"

"Nelyna!" Vaga shouts. "Calm down! We're making progress. We'll discuss it in the main room with everyone else."

Vaga leads her into the atrium and to a table where Alex, Nata, and Hirvio wait. Vaga walks up and takes a seat and Nelyna sits next to him.

"What did you learn?" Nata asks Vaga.

"We learned that they're headed for Omega. The officer said it would take them at least until the 13th to get there and it's the 11th right now." Vaga sighs. "So we have two days from this point to get there. But the problem is that all priority shuttles are booked and unavailable. So… We have no way to get them."

The room is silent. The air of defeat is heavy like a huge blanket.

"Um…" Nelyna says. "I think I know someone who can help…"

"What? Really?" Vaga frowns.

Nelyna nods. "Yeah, there's this guy I used to massage, he's a private ship owner and he transports cargo, but I'm pretty sure he's actually a smuggler. He said he could get anyone through the Attican Traverse in a day so I'm sure he'd help you guys out… for the right price."

Vaga sighs. "Ugh… This rescue is getting more and more expensive." Vaga stands again. "Nelyna, why don't you come with me so we can meet him? Everyone else stay here."

"Where's Tyrannax?" Nata asks before they leave.

"He's picking up his gear and something for Hirvio to use." Vaga responds, causing Hirvio to grin. "Come on, Nelyna, let's not waste daylight."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero ducks into a small alcove as a group of slavers rounds a corner and he waits for them to run past.

He waits for a while after they've left and grips his pistol tightly. Zero pokes his head out and looks up and down the hallway, searching for any more slavers.

After he's sure the coast is clear he walks out and quickly rushes down the hall. His bare feet soften his steps and make his footsteps mostly soundless. But the problem is he doesn't know where he's going.

Zero stops and opens the omni-tool he took from the guard. He opens a map and searches the various levels for anything nearby that may help him shut down the power to the shield pylons in Jada's cell.

His best bet is to get to the _Core Generator Room_, which is on his level. But to get there, he'll have to pass the _Main Barracks_. Zero sighs and looks for an alternate route. A sudden banging from his left makes him jump and raise his pistol.

A small square maintenance hatch is all that's there.

Zero frowns and examines it while lowering his pistol.

"Hello?" The sudden voice on the other side makes him jump and raise his pistol again. "Come on guys! This isn't funny! I've been in here for like 2 hours! I went all the way to the generator room and back! All the hatches are locked! Come on! Let me out!"

Zero frowns and opens the hatch.

"Ugh! Finally!" The dirty batarian says with relief. He pulls himself out and dusts off his uniform. "Thanks for getting me out of… there…" The batarian blinks at Zero's clothing and the gun in his face. "Aw… Crap."

Zero grabs his shirt and pushes him against the wall. "Where does this hatch lead?"

The batarian raises his hands in front of his face and stares at the gun with all four eyes nervously. "It leads to the Core Generator room!"

"How do I get the other hatch open?" Zero waits for a response but after none comes, Zero jabs the batarian in the face with the barrel on the gun. "Answer me!"

"Ow! I-I don't know! Just don't kill me!"

Zero sighs and knocks out the batarian by bashing him in the head with the pistol.

He crawls into the hatch, dragging the unconscious batarian in behind him and turns on his omni-tool light. "I'll just wing it…"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Vaga raps on the hotel room door with his knuckle while trying to listen inside. Loud music, however, covers up whatever is going on inside.

Vaga looks at Nelyna who shrugs and nods him on. Vaga bangs on the door as hard as he can.

He hears the music quiet and he bangs on it again to confirm for the occupant that there's someone there.

"Alright, alright! I'm coming, just hold your horses!" Vaga hears someone shout on the other side.

The door opens and a human glares out at him. "Who the fuck are you?"

The man is tall, probably around Splicer's height, with very short and dark sandy colored hair. He has short stubble crossing his chin and jawline, broken by a long thin scar question mark shaped scar on the left side of his face. His brow is creased by anger and his corn yellow eyes glare at Vaga.

"Well?" The man growls at him, his voice tanged by an accent. "What do you want?"

Vaga, being so intimidated is unable to compile words, so he says, "Uh… Nelyna?"

"What?" The man says confused. He opens the door more and leans out and sees Nelyna and instantly his face brightens. "Nelyna? What are you doing here?"

Vaga detected some affection in that statement. Vaga looks at Nelyna who smiles at him, her hands interlocked and arms straight, and her feet together. Vaga nods in approval. In his opinion, her stance looks innocent and attractive. Truly a skillful way to make requests.

"First off," Nelyna starts, she turns to Vaga. "Vaga, this is Isaac Bishop. Isaac this is Vaga Kotka." Vaga smiles and offers a hand. Isaac glances at it, gives a curt upward nod and turns his attention back to Nelyna. "Isaac." Nelyna says with a smile. "Listen… I need to ask a favor of you."

"Really?" Isaac looks at Vaga. "If it's a threesome with this guy, then sorry I'll have to decline."

Vaga grimaces and Nelyna smiles wider.

She shakes her head. "No, I need you to take him and a few others to Omega ASAP. Can you do that?"

Isaac opens the door all the way and leans against the doorway, crossing his arms. Only now does Vaga notice that he wears no shirt. He's statuesque in musculature, but flawed physically. His entire left arm is scarred from a severe burn, making it red and shiny. Clearly, however, surgery had been done to prevent severe disfiguration or malfunction, as his arm is relatively normal, other than the damaged skin. In other words, it looks like he has a really, really bad… what do humans call it? Sunburn. There's also a large scar across his belly, just underneath the naval.

"Turian." Isaac shouts at him. Vaga looks up at him. "Quit staring. It's rude."

Vaga smirks awkwardly. "Sorry…"

Isaac turns his attention back to Nelyna. "I can take them to Omega. I can do it fast. But you know I don't work for favors. What's in it for me?"

Vaga jumps into the conversation. "I can pay handsomely."

"How much?" Isaac asks with an odd smile.

"5,000." Vaga responds instantly.

"Double it."

"Okay, fine. 10,000."

Isaac smiles a smile so small it shows more in his eyes than on his face. "Double it."

Vaga frowns. "20,000?"

Isaac's smile brightens in his eyes. "Double it."

Vaga's frown deepens, and at this point Nelyna is looking confused as well.

"40,000?"

Isaac laughs. "This must be important. I want to see how far I can take this!" He sighs and turns to walk back into his hotel room. "But, unfortunately, I'm busy at the moment and I don't have time for multiplication. I don't need your money." Isaac turns and starts to close the door. He pauses and smiles at Nelyna. "See you, Nelyna. It was nice to see you again."

He shuts the door and Nelyna and Vaga look at each other.

"He was an ass." Vaga says with an angry stare at the door.

Nelyna frowns. "That was uncharacteristic of him, he's usually quite nice."

Vaga rolls his eyes. "Of course he is."

"What do you mean?"

Vaga rubs his eyes with his knuckles. "He thinks you're hot, Nelyna."

Nelyna blushes and is taken aback. "What? Geez, Vaga. You don't have to be so black and white about it."

Vaga rolls his eyes. "Whatever, we have to get him to bring us to Omega."

"What can we do? He doesn't want money. I mean he turned down 40 K for Goddess's sakes!"

"Everyone has a price." Vaga mumbles banging on his door. "Sometimes it's not credits."

The door opens again after a second.

Isaac frowns. "Oh, it's you again. I thought I made myself perfectly clear… Oh hi Nelyna."

Vaga notices a subtle look of shocked realization on Nelyna's face, followed by a blush in her cheeks. He ignores it and turns his attention back to Isaac. "Listen, we need your help. My friends were kidnapped by slavers and they're headed to Omega. They'll be there within 2 days, and Nelyna told us you could get us there in one day."

Isaac nods. "Yeah. I can get you through customs and the Attican Traverse in a day. It's not easy but I can do it. I need compensation, but it's not money I want."

"What do you want?" Vaga asks, nervous about what the response will be.

Isaac sighs and looks down at his feet… no, his arm. "A favor for a favor. If you guys are going to save your friends from slavers, then you're packing heat, am I correct?"

Vaga nods. "I'm taking two krogan as backup."

Isaac's gold eyes brighten. "That's what I like to hear. After I help you, you help me. Maybe not right away, but when I ask you to. Got it?"

Vaga nods. "Fine. I'll even get my friends, the ones we're saving, to help."

"Who are we going after?"

"You ever heard of Splicer?" Nelyna asks with an eyebrow raised.

Isaac's shining eyes brighten even more. "You've just made my day." He turns and walks into his hotel room. "Wait out there, I'm going to get my stuff ready."

Vaga sighs in relief as the door closes. "Thank the Spirits… we have a way to get there."

Nelyna nods. "I'm glad he's helping us."

Vaga nods. "Me too."

Isaac turns up the volume on the music player, drowning out noise he may make. He kneels on the ground and bows his head. He removes the necklace from around his neck and places it on the ground. He presses a small button on it and the digital image stored within lights up.

"I'll find him for you." He sobs as he says it. "I'll destroy him for you." He chokes up and a tear follows the question mark path down his face. "I'd do anything for you."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Zero reaches the end of the maintenance access shaft and he opens his omni-tool. He starts hacking the hatch to gain control of the locking mechanism. After quite a few failed attempts he finally succeeds and the hatch unlocks.

He turns over onto his belly and readies his pistol. He opens the hatch, and after a quick assessment that the immediate area is clear, Zero crawls out from the hatch and hides behind some crates.

He's in a high ceilinged long room. There's a spacious I shaped walkway down the center of the room. Zero is on one of the wide ends of the walkway, a very tall pile of crates and a vehicle with which to stack them is where Zero hides. Across from him, there is a large generator. The rest of the walkway is lined with huge generators, much larger than the one across Zero. Zero guesses, that this smaller one is an auxiliary generator, for emergencies only. Two batarian engineers stand at a terminal perpendicular to the generator across Zero, facing the line of huge generators.

"So, do you know what's going on down in detention level?" One batarian engineer asks another.

"I heard there was a power outage and they're having trouble containing the prisoners."

The first engineer scoffs. "What, all two of them? You're full of crap Tolka."

"Fuck you."

Zero stands and approaches the pair of batarians as they stand side by side, typing on their consoles.

Zero whips one over the back of the head, knocking him unconscious instantly. Zero instantly dives to the side and wraps his arms around the other engineer. He then twists him and pile drives him into the metal deck with a sickening crunch.

He lets go of the dead batarian and lets the corpse roll off of him by its own gravity.

Zero sighs. "I'm getting too old for this…"

Zero straightens with an exhausted sigh and walks over to one of the consoles. He starts running through the options and control settings. He finds one labeled Power Distribution and he tries dialing down the Power Distribution to 0.

"_Error!"_ The automated VI shouts at him. _"Power levels are unable to be reduced to 0 outputs without a ship wide emergency."_

Zero sighs through his nose. "VI, can power levels in the Detention Center be shut down?"

"_Negative."_

Zero sighs again and stops to think.

"Okay… You know what?" Zero mumbles typing on the consoles again. "Let's make a ship wide emergency."

Zero examines the power line charts and finds the generator that is the main power supply for the Detention Center; it is also happens to be the only generator for the Detention Center.

Zero smirks and lowers the power output from the other generators to 2% each and redirects the remainder of their output to the Detention Center generator.

A loud humming starts to crescendo from the generator immediately to his right.

That's what he forgot to do, figure out which one it is.

"Crap." Zero doesn't even try running.

The generator overloads and explodes and sends Zero flying into the opposite wall. He collides with it and falls unconscious.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Jada looks up at the ceiling as the lights suddenly turn on and get extraordinarily bright. Her eyes dart to what remains of the wires in the wall, and she raises her eyebrows in confused concern at the sight of electricity arcing from the wires.

Suddenly the kinetic barrier she's in starts to grow brighter and brighter until the pylons explode. And just like that she's free.

Jada leaps to her feet. "Yes!" She shouts.

Suddenly the lights overhead start overloading and rain glass onto the floor. Jada covers her head and leans over to protect herself from the razor sharp shards. After a few seconds, the lights just shut off and she is bathed in complete darkness.

Jada straightens and tries to see around the room. She knows the general area of where the dead asari and the shotgun and the open panel are. She just has to get over there.

Jada takes a step but instantly lurches her foot back into the air.

"Ouch!" She cries, holding her bleeding foot. She carefully lowers it back into its original spot.

She lowers herself and lightly places her hand on the floor, she feels hard and sharp glass shards stick to her palm.

"Shit…" Jada mumbles. The shards are so sharp that even if she dragged her feet along the ground, they would get shredded up. Jada sighs and tries to think of a solution.

The bands of linen she's using as a top would be too thin to use to push the shards out of the way. She sighs and removes the remainder of her pants.

"Woke up topless." She mumbles wrapping the pants around her hand. "Escaping bottomless… I'm so glad it's dark in here."

Jada squats down and sweeps some shards aside. The pants tear slightly, but not much. They'll hold together. She continues sweeping the shards aside and taking careful light steps forward, limping slightly due to her injured foot.

Finally, after what feels like forever, she bumps into the dead asari. Jada straightens and smiles with self-satisfaction. She puts the pants back on, but she can feel they're pretty damaged. She squats down and starts searching the asari.

She removes the omni-tool and turns on the light. She removes the asari's armor and starts to put it on, but much of it doesn't fit. She ends up with only the boots, thigh plates, gloves and bracers, pauldrons and belt on. Jada retrieves the shotgun and walks up to the open panel nearby. The glass crunches under her hard boots as she walks.

Jada peeks out to make sure the coast is clear, before walking back to the asari. Jada picks her up and approaches the panel once more

She steps out of the cell and looks up and down the room. It's pitch black in here, she can't see a thing.

Jada feels out the edge of the walkway and tosses the asari over it. There's a long time span between where Jada released the corpse and where there's a sound when the body hits the bottom.

Some lights at the other end appear and shine down towards her. She points her light back at them to obscure who's standing there.

"Who's that?" Jada hears someone shout.

"Uh… Altea!" Jada shouts back, trying her best to sound like the dead asari.

"Altea? Thank goodness!" The voice shouts back. "Where's the prisoner?"

"I don't know!" Jada shouts back. "The pylons malfunctioned and I think she escaped!"

"She couldn't have gotten past us." The voice says, musingly. "She must be still in the room! Spread out!"

Jada turns and walks toward the other end of the room. She looks over her shoulder to make sure they're not looking. She then shuts off her omni-tool light and vaults over the walkway. As she hangs on the edge she swings forward and hangs onto the underside of the walkway like a spider.

She starts crawling forward on the underside of the walkway, keeping her fingers hooked in the grating for support. Before her modification, she would've never been able to do this. But after it, everything that was hard got softer, everything that was resistant became pliant, everything that was strong became weak. Everything just got… easier.

She smiles as she crawls along the underside of the walkway, toward the other end. Everything is just so easy now. That's why she likes her job so much. It brings new challenges, every day.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Vaga walks alone into the hanger, fully armored and carrying his weapons with him.

He sees that the ship he's going to be traveling in isn't particularly large, but he wasn't exactly expecting it to be. A cargo loading ramp is lowered and two men load crates into it while Isaac sits on a crate.

He wears a short, high collar padded leather vest over an armored cuirass. His arms are covered with fashionable long leather sleeves with gloves attached along with bracers. He's wearing Alliance blue camo style pants with black knee pads and black boots. He also wears 5 pistols on his person, one in a shoulder holster, one on each leg in a leg holster and one on each hip in holsters on his belt.

He chews on a toothpick as he watches the two men work. Isaac quickly notices Vaga approaching.

He hops off the crate and offers a hand. "Hey. We're almost ready to leave, just some final technicalities to handle."

Vaga nods. "Good… where are the others?"

"They're both waiting on the ship… By the way, I thought you said you were taking two krogan, not 1 ½ krogan." Isaac jokes quietly.

Vaga chuckles.

"Well… actually to be fair, it's more like 3 krogan. That Tyrannax is worth 2 ½ at least." Isaac turns and looks at his ship.

Vaga chuckles again.

Isaac nods and waves for him to follow.

As they pass, Isaac pauses and directs his attention to one of the men loading the cargo. "Jacob, make sure all these crates get stacked neatly."

Jacob nods. "Yes, sir."

"Ah, ah!" Isaac scolds him. "You're on a real crew now, Mr. Taylor. You say 'Aye, aye' when you want to acknowledge something."

"Aye, aye, sir." Jacob says without stopping his work.

"Jacob, this is Vaga Kotka, he'll be the last passenger we'll be taking along with us. Vaga, this is my copilot and 1st mate, Jacob Taylor." Isaac says lazily.

Jacob places a crate down and holds a hand out to Vaga. "Pleasure to meet you."

Vaga nods and shakes his hand. "Likewise."

Jacob is a tall guy, slightly taller than Isaac. He is also a much more muscularly massive man than Isaac. Jacob wears a suit of light combat armor, plated by a few separate armor pieces. He's got an assault rifle on his back, along with a shotgun on his belt.

Isaac nods and continues up the ramp. They pass another person. This one is an angry looking and disfigured turian. He wears extremely heavy and restricting looking armor, with an assault rifle on his back and a handgun on his hip. He doesn't work and instead focuses on shaping some odd hollow metal cones, glancing up and grumbling at dockhands wandering the hanger.

"Vaga, this is the engineer and gunnery chief, Farro Germat. Farro this is-"

"I heard." Farro grunts, interrupting Isaac. "Now, fuck off."

Vaga glances at Isaac in shock. Isaac just ignores him, like this is common for him.

"Sorry about that." Isaac mumbles to Vaga out of courtesy after they're out of earshot of Farro.

"What's his problem?"

Isaac shrugs. "Lots of stuff. He's a bitter guy. He also once nearly drowned on Khaje so that may have given him some brain damage."

Vaga frowns and follows Isaac into the ship. He finds himself in a small cargo hold with a ladder at one end and a door marked _Engine Room _at the other.

"Your friends are up above in the guest quarters." Isaac mumbles examining a wall monitor. "We'll be underway in an hour."

Vaga is about to thank him, but he seems pretty much buried in the data streaming over the screen of the monitor. Vaga just sighs and climbs the ladder into the crew deck.

A small hall is where Vaga finds himself. A door at one side of the hall is marked _Guest Quarters_, the one at the other is marked _Crew_ _Quarters_, and the door at the end of the hall is labeled _Lounge_.

Vaga enters the Guest Quarters and he finds himself in what looks like what used to be a storage room but was converted into a secondary crew quarters. There are four bunks lined up on either side of the room, with a few lockers next to each. There's a door at one side of the room, which Vaga assumes is the bathroom. There are a few crates stacked in the corner of the room next to the window, on top of which Tyrannax sits and stares out the window.

Hirvio, meanwhile, unpacks a bag, laying his clothing neatly on his bunk to be refolded.

Vaga nods at Hirvio and walks over to Tyrannax. Vaga raises his eyebrows when he sees that Tyrannax is assembling a handgun with blinding speed and shocking skill, without even looking at what he's doing. He just glares at the dockhands running around outside.

"How're you doing that?" Vaga asks sitting on a crate next to Tyrannax who continues to work.

"Doing what?" Tyrannax mumbles after a second. Before Vaga can respond, Tyrannax snaps the barrel in place, cocks the gun's heat sink, and turns on the mass accelerator.

The gun is a typical handgun except much larger and with an extended barrel modification, an angled grip, and a laser sight on the underside.

"Nice piece." Vaga mumbles examining the gun. "You're going to do some damage with that."

Tyrannax guffaws an explosive sounding laugh. "This isn't my gun. This one is for Hirvio."

Hirvio looks up and Tyrannax tosses him the handgun. Hirvio catches and examines it with a stern look.

"That one's for you. On the house." Tyrannax says, his voice shaking the room like a dragon's growl.

Vaga frowns and looks around the room for Tyrannax's weapons. He's already armored in some of the heaviest armors he's ever seen, but Vaga's more eager to see what guns he'll be using.

"Where're your guns?" Vaga asks him, still searching the room for them.

Tyrannax smiles and nods at a pair of very large metal crates. "In there."

Vaga nods at them. "There?"

Tyrannax nods. "Yeah. Go ahead."

Vaga stands and flips the catches on the uppermost case. He lifts the lid which assists him with a spring loaded snapping. Vaga's jaw drops.

Vaga's not even sure what he's looking at. It's longer than most sniper rifles, bulkier than most shotguns, and has got more crap stuck to it than most assault rifles. It's a huge gun, almost as tall as Vaga if he stood it upright. Its barrel also looks like it could fit Vaga's entire arm up to the shoulder and if he didn't have a fringe, could probably fit his head too.

He reaches down slowly and draws the Excalibur from the case, struggling greatly due to its immense weight. "What is this?"

"I haven't named it yet." Tyrannax says with a proud smile. "Though I've been tossing some names around. I think I'll call it… Kalros."

"Kalros?"

"She's the mother of all Thresher Maws on Tuchanka." Tyrannax smiles as he says it, reaching for his mother of all weapons. "This is my master piece."

"What is it, exactly?" Vaga asks, noting how it seems to fit Tyrannax like a glove. Hirvio walks up to the two of them, staring dissatisfied at his pistol.

Tyrannax thinks for a second. "Kind of a hybrid of a sniper rifle and a shotgun and an assault rifle. It's got the range and accuracy of a sniper rifle, the power and capabilities of a shotgun and the fire rate of an assault rifle. I can accurately shoot slugs or buckshot from this beast from up to 1000 yards at 400 rounds per minute. The drawback is it weighs a few hundred pounds, it has more recoil than if you got kicked in the head, and it often needs to be cooled manually."

"How do you do that?"

"Coolant tanks, mostly." Tyrannax responds. "Problem is the tanks weigh almost as much as the gun. The gun has six rotating heat sinks because they overheat with each shot, but the coolant tanks flash cool the heat sinks, which is what brings the fire rate. Unfortunately, this makes them easy to break. I usually need to replace the heat sinks in it after most engagements or even during, meaning I have to carry extras with me."

"So it's heavy and it's got a lot of baggage." Vaga says looking at the gun.

Tyrannax nods and props the gun against his shoulder. And with a mighty boom, louder than anything Vaga's ever heard before, the gun fires and digs a hole the size of Vaga's head into the ceiling.

"And it has a propensity to misfire." Tyrannax mumbles staring at the ceiling.

"What's in this other one?"

Tyrannax replaces his destroyer of worlds in its case. "See for yourself."

Vaga opens the case and raises his eyebrows at the contents of this one.

They appear to be ancient dual Claymore shotguns, except the grips of the gun are more toward the center and the barrels are snubbed and tipped with chokes.

"My first guns." Tyrannax says with a proud smile. "These are what modern Claymores are based off of. But I'd choose these any day. They lack the power of Claymores, but they make up for it in lighter weight and more usability and reliability. These two are among the last of their kind. I think there are only a few left in the galaxy. But these still kick harder than most to date."

He takes the shotguns from the case and slips them into holsters built into the sides of his thigh armor pieces.

He smiles. "Like a glove."

Vaga feels the ship rattle and he watches as it backs from the docking platform. "Looks like we're underway."

Tyrannax looks back out the window. "We're on our way then. A certain group of slavers better start praying to their Gods. Their last moments are at hand."

* * *

><p><strong>1:11 AM May 12, 2182<strong>

Alarms were screaming, making Zero's headache worse. People were shouting, making Zero's headache worse. And Zero's headache was making his headache worse.

Zero slowly opens his eyes, blinking blood from his eyes as he does. He's buried under some crates and the room is illuminated by flashing red lights and the flickering orange light of a blazing flame.

"Get that fire out now!" Someone roars.

"Captain!" Zero recognizes the voice of the man in the comedian mask from their kidnapping easily. "Captain, we have a situation in Detention! Our guests have escaped!"

"I know-" He roars, but he stops himself. There's a slight pause and when he speaks again his voice is filled with malice. "Both of them?"

"… Yes sir." The clown man says shamefully.

There's a bloodthirsty roar followed by a flash of blue light and a scream of pain.

"Dammit!" The batarian voice roars. "You and you, get that fire out now! The rest of you will follow me! Par'Thet, Craven! That means you too!"

Zero hears a number of footsteps and the sounds of a door opening and closing. Zero tries to stay quiet as he sits up and presses a hand to his forehead. Blood drenches his hand. He may have a concussion, but Zero doesn't care very much about that. He'll just keep fighting.

Zero climbs out of the pile of crates and takes a quick scan of the room. Two slavers attempt to put out the large blaze that was the Detention Center's main generator and they don't even notice Zero in the slightest.

Zero decides to save his energy and leave the main Generator room. He looks up and down the hall and limps down the hall to the right, toward the stairs leading to the main bridge.

Suddenly there's a loud gun retort from behind him. Zero dives into a small alcove to protect himself from the gunfire. He frowns when there is no further fire.

He peeks around the corner and looks down the hall.

Three slavers charge in his direction. No, they aren't charging. They're running.

Another gun retort sends one flying forward. He lands face first and slides a few feet before stopping. The other two just start running faster.

Another gunshot blasts the leg off another, causing him to howl with pain and cry out to the last runner.

The last runner starts sprinting as fast as he can down the hall and he passes Zero entirely before his head disappears in a red mist. He drops to his knees, slides a few feet, rotating slightly, before he falls limp.

Zero peeks around the corner again and sees Jada place her foot on top of the prone merc and blast him in the chest with her shotgun.

Zero sighs with relief and walks out into the open.

Jada snaps to attention and aims her shotgun at him quickly.

He raises his hands. "Whoa! It's me!"

Jada visibly relaxes with relief. "Zero! Goddamn, it's good to see you!"

She runs up and embraces him tightly.

"Jada? Are you crying?" Zero asks shocked.

She chuckles, her voice shaken by sobs. "Yeah… Are you drunk? Your voice is slurred."

"I think I have a concussion. I'll be alright." Zero replies, also noticing his words are slurred.

Jada pulls away and wipes her eyes. "Well, what's the plan now?"

Zero shrugs. "I don't know… Oh! I'll call Alex. I'll see what they're doing on their end."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile… <strong>

_"Alex?"_ Alex hears Zero say over the comm. Alex leaps from the couch and tries to grab the comm and mic before Nata has a chance to react, but Nelyna actually gets to it first.

"Zero!" Nelyna shouts into it, jamming the earpiece into her… ear?

Alex frowns and tries to figure out how asari ears actually work while Nelyna talks with Zero.

_"Who's this?"_ Zero asks sounding confused.

"Nelyna! Are you alright? Please tell me you and Jada are okay!"

Zero sighs. _"Yeah. We're fine. I don't know what you're getting so worked up over, we've been in sticky situations before."_

Nelyna starts getting emotional. "But still! I mean, you guys are in danger! And Splicer is in stasis and… I can't-" She interrupts herself with those uncontrollable gasping sobs.

_"Nelyna."_ Zero actually sounds like he's cringing. _"Crying women make my terribly uncomfortable. Probably because I suck at comforting them… Uh… Please stop."_

Nelyna is still unable to control herself so she just hands off the earpiece and mic to Alex.

Alex sighs and rolls her eyes. "Yeah Zero, how can I help?"

_"Alex, good."_ Zero sounds quite relieved._ "Good news, Jada and I escaped our cells. We need a plan of action though. What are you guys doing on your end?"_

Alex sighs in relief. "That is good news. Well I have good news too: Vaga, Tyrannax, Hirvio, and a couple of other guys are flying in to help you guys. They'll get to Omega… Should be there by this afternoon."

_"Thanks Alex. I think that's all I need. I think I know what we need to do… Is Nata there?"_

Alex heart leaps to her throat. She looks at Nata nervously. "Yeah…"

_"I know you told her, Alex."_

"How?"

_"Knowing you? You suck at lying. I kind of pieced it together."_ Zero pauses. _"Can I talk to her?"_

"Okay…" Alex takes the earpiece out of her ear. "Nata?" Nata looks up at her. "Zero wants to talk to you."

She sits fairly still for a second before she nods and holds her hand out. Alex places the mic and comm earpiece in her palm and Nata takes them out of the room.

She walks into that strange aquarium room. She liked that room.

Nata sighs, wipes the earpiece on the cloth adorning her suit. She takes a deep breath and removes her mask.

She quickly places the earpiece in her ear and places her mask back on.

She holds the mic close to her helmet. "Zero?"

There's a slight pause. _"Nata."_

"Zero, before you say anything…" Nata takes a deep breath. "I wanted to say that… I don't want you to worry about me. You don't need to. I'm safe. You need to worry about yourself… be selfish, for once."

She hears Zero chuckle softly. _"Nata, I'm not worried about you at all."_

Nata is slightly taken aback. "I don't understand."

_"You're a strong girl. If you set your mind to something, and you're passionate about it, not even an iridium wall would stop you."_ There's a slight pause and Zero takes a deep breath. _"I'm not worried about you, Nata. Because I know you aren't worried about me. There's an old turian saying: War is a wall, only which stands to keep two things apart. Nothing can keep us apart, Nata."_

She smiles. "I know you'll get out of there alright. I love you, Zero."

_"I love you too, Nata…"_ Zero is breathing heavily. _"With all my… Heart…"_

"Zero?" Nata feels her heart get lighter. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

There's no response.

"Zero?" Nata starts to sob. "Zero!"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Shit." Jada curses, after turning around when she hears something fall to the ground. That something being Zero.

It appears that he passed out or something.

"Concussions will do that." Jada mumbles walking over to his prone body.

Jada drags him into the alcove nearby and opens the door behind her. She quickly makes sure it's empty, which it isn't.

There's a guard sound asleep on one of the cots occupying the room.

She walks up to the sleeping guard and smashes his head with the butt of her gun. She drags Zero over to one of the vacant cots in the crew quarters and lays him down on it.

Jada sighs and quickly locks the door.

"Okay…" She mumbles to herself. "What now?"

She knows she should help Zero, but she doesn't know how. She also knows that she should try and reach Splicer, but she doesn't know where he is. She also knows that she should try to cripple the ship, but she doesn't know how to do that either.

Jada decides to just hunker down and do her best to help Zero recover as quickly as possible.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Uh, yeah so... um... not really much to say... Other than this chapter used to be a lot shorter. And the next one used to be a lot longer. I did a little bit of editing a while back. Balanced it out a lot better in my opinion. **

**Not really much more to say now... so... Have a nice day I guess. Oh, sorry about the slight tardiness of this chapter. I forgot to post it yesterday... got caught up with... stuff.**

**Anyways, leave a review if you want, favorite or add my story to your alerts if you feel up to it, and I'll see you next week if you don't mind. I like to stay neutral. I don't want to feel like I'm bossing you guys around.**

**Anyways, see you guys next Tuesday... or not, whatever. *Laughs awkwardly and rubs the back of head awkwardly* So... Yeah. I guess I'll see you. Or not. Maybe. Okay... bye.**


	29. Chapter 29 TC P 5: Funny How Things Go

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>A man has only one escape from his old self: to see a different self in the mirror of a woman's eyes."<strong>

**~Clare Boothe Luce~**

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright, so this is the conclusion of The Chain. As it turns out, I'm bad at planning things so I kind of had too much stuff I had to do in one chapter… so here's the world's longest chapter ever or at least my story's longest chapter ever.**

**Well I hope you like it.**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 29: The Chain<strong>

**Part 5: Funny How Things Go**

**1:21 AM May 12, 2182**

* * *

><p>Jada looks down at Zero, unconscious and injured on the cot. "What should I do now?"<p>

Jada walks over to a small door on the opposite side of the room. She opens it and snaps her shotgun up. However the room, a small bathroom, is vacant.

Jada enters the bathroom and looks around for anything that might be useful for her. In the bathroom, there's a toilet, a counter with a sink, a mirror that's attached to the wall, and a first aid station on the wall. Jada opens it and takes out all the medi-gel tubes it contains. Six doses total. She carries them out of the bathroom and places them on the bed next to Zero.

She takes a tube and fills the large heavily bleeding wound just above his eye.

She tosses it aside with a sigh and looks around the room. There are two other vacant bunks. Four bunks total. One is occupied by Zero and the other by the dead slaver. There's a line of personal lockers on the far wall near the door as well as…

"Ah hell yeah." Jada says with a wide smile, walking up to the gun rack next to the lockers.

Jada takes an assault rifle and a bunch of grenades. She attaches the grenades to her belt and starts to rummage through the lockers. She manages to find a shirt and pants that will fit her, as well as clothing for Zero. Jada removes her boots and thigh armor and pulls on the clothing.

She sighs in satisfaction. "It's nice to have real clothes on again."

She reattaches her armor and continues her rummaging of the lockers. She manages to find a box of energy bars for turians, made for kids so you know it'll taste good, as well as a Fornax magazine.

"Oh my." Jada mumbles looking at the cover of the magazine. She drags a chair from a table in the corner of the room over to Zero's bedside and positions it to face the door. She takes a seat and starts to read the magazine. "Hm. Didn't know Volus could be that flexible..."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Ok, you understand the rules now?" Alex whispers to Nelyna.

"Yeah, it seems pretty simple." Nelyna responds while making a fist and putting it into her other outstretched palm.

Alex mirrors her. "Okay, ready? Rock, paper, scissors! Crap!"

"Hah, I win!" Nelyna smiles cheerfully and claps her hands together in front of her chest.

Alex rolls her eyes. "Fine…"

She peeks into the aquarium-lounge room at Nata who is sobbing uncontrollably. She cringes and walks in slowly.

"Nata, are you okay?" Alex asks, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Nata shakes her head and Alex takes a seat.

"Something's wrong." Nata manages to say.

Alex frowns, concern for Zero now replacing concern for Nata. "What happened?"

Nata takes in a few harsh breaths. "I was talking to him and… I think he passed out or something. He just stopped talking and he isn't responding."

Alex is worried now. She covers her mouth with her hand and tries to find a reason not to be worried. "Well… Jada was with him, I think. She can keep him safe."

"Alex. I'm so tired."

Alex nods understandingly. "I understand. I'm really tired too."

"No, you don't understand." Nata shakes her head and sobs. "I'm so tired, of all this kind of crap." Alex frowns. She doesn't understand. "I'm so tired of being forced to worry. Zero is the love of my life. But it's torture being with him. I love him so much that it kills me when this stuff happens. Keelah, I'm so tired of caring."

Alex's frown deepens. She looks at the fish swimming in their aquarium. She suddenly feels very, very tired.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Craven." The batarian slaver leader and captain of the ship says angrily in the dark detention room.

"Yes sir." Craven responds, his unique voice echoing in the room.

The captain blindly backhands him across the face.

Craven coughs and spits. He takes a sharp, angry and restrained breath.

"You pathetic pile of filth." The captain growls. "You are truly pathetic. How, in Shagalava's name, did you lose two prisoners. One, a malnourished turian under constant guard and the other an impossibly caged woman, under constant guard. You… There are no words, for how truly… positively useless, you are."

Craven glares at his blurry outline in the dark. "… Yes sir."

Craven's hand tightens on his pistol but he doesn't draw it. He's better than that.

"Sir!" The boatswain of the deck says running up to the captain.

"What are you doing here? You should be in the pilothouse."

"Sir, we're having difficulties shutting off the Collector signal." The boatswain of the deck informs him, sounding awfully nervous. "What should we do sir?"

"Continue transmitting. We have Splicer, that's 3 million credits easy on its own." The captain switches to a loud booming voice to inform everyone in the room. "But that doesn't mean I want those other prisoners to run free! If you find and capture just one of them, I'll double your annual pay for another year!"

Everyone in the room starts working more frantically.

"Get back in the pilothouse." The captain growls at the boatswain of the deck. "Craven. Get out of my sight."

Craven scowls but does as he's told, walking out of the detention center.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"_Hitting the relay in three…"_ The voice of Jacob says over the ship's intercom. _"Two… One…"_

There's a humming followed by a loud boom. There's a flash of blue light from outside that momentarily illuminates the room. Tyrannax looks out the window at the new system they're in.

"_Now arriving at the Omega Nebula."_ Jacob announces. _"Mister Kotka, please join us on the bridge."_

Vaga props himself up on his elbows from the bunk. He sighs and gets all the way up and stretches.

Without a word he exits the quarters and climbs the ladder to the bridge. Vaga walks onto the bridge, rubbing his stiff back as he approaches the small galaxy map in the center of the room.

It's an older galaxy map, not a 3D holographic image, but a 2D image on a large table.

Isaac leans on the edge of it, coordinating system wide scans. He looks up at Vaga momentarily before returning his attention to the map.

"I'm conducting scans of the area for ships matching the signal registration of your slaver ship." Isaac mumbles, clearly engrossed in his work.

"And?"

Isaac sighs as the map flashes red. "Nothing. And that was the third time I did the scan."

Vaga frowns. "Is it possible they're not here yet?"

Isaac shrugs. "Maybe they're ahead of us."

Vaga's frown deepens. "Possibly… But… You know I doubt the Collectors would meet them _in_ this system. You know it's a high trafficked area."

"True." Isaac responds nodding. "So you're saying they might be in a different system right now?"

Vaga nods. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Okay… Any ideas where?"

Vaga shakes his head. "No idea."

"I do." Tyrannax suddenly says as he climbs the ladder, making them all jump.

"How?"

Tyrannax reaches the top and joins the trio around the galaxy map.

Before he speaks, Jacob walks up and joins them as well. "I docked with the fueling station. Tanks should be full in an hour."

"Thank you, Jacob." Isaac responds with a nod. "You were saying, krogan."

Tyrannax gives him a look and continues. "I've dealt with them before… sort of."

"What?" Jacob says shocked. "You've dealt with them?"

"I worked as a mercenary for decades before I became a weapon and armor smith. I only stopped about 10 years ago. Well I worked as the personal guard for Warlord Okeer. Okeer was a nut-job but he paid well. He traded with the Collectors once for tech."

"How did you meet with them?" Isaac asks.

"We set up a transmitter sending a particular signal out of system, in the middle of nowhere. Soon enough they just showed up and Okeer traded with them. End of story. But I think that I can set up a device to track that signal so we could find their ship." Tyrannax says, making the map table creak under his weight.

"How long will that take?" Vaga asks him.

Tyrannax shrugs. "A couple of hours."

Some beeping from the dashboard catches Jacob's attention and he returns to his chair and there's the distant pop of a ship entering through a mass relay.

"We don't have that kind of time." Vaga says with impatient anger. "The Collectors could be here in-"

"Uh, boss?" Jacob calls from the pilot's chair.

"Yeah, Jacob?" Isaac asks, approaching the chair and looking out the window. He starts to gape in awe.

"It looks like they might already be here." Jacob mumbles staring at the huge and hideous amalgam of asteroids and starship.

"The Collectors. That's them." Tyrannax growls as he stares at the ship.

"Follow them!" Isaac roars angrily. "I'm going to track their signature!"

"Farro!" Jacob yells into the intercom. "I need you to push the engines! The Collector ship is really hauling ass!"

"_Their screaming already, Jacob!"_ Farro's voice shouts, both from the intercom and from down below. _"I'm already torturing them; I don't think they'll be able to take anymore!"_

"Make them!" Jacob roars back, not bothering with the intercom.

Vaga rushes to the ladder. "I'm going down below to help Farro."

"Do it." Isaac responds, typing furiously on the galaxy map.

Vaga slides down the ladder and Tyrannax follows. "I'm going to prep our stuff!"

"Good, my crew will be joining in the assault, FYI." Isaac says before Tyrannax goes down.

"The more the bloodier… And what does FYI mean?"

"'For your information.'" Isaac shouts back.

Tyrannax nods and jumps down through the ladder chute. He moves quickly into the guest crew quarters, hardly waiting for the door to open all the way. Hirvio turns to look at him from watching the Collector ship through the window.

"The Collectors arrived." Tyrannax grunts as he yanks his weapons cases off his bunk. "We're suiting up. Wherever they're headed we need to be there."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Oh! That's just graphic!" Jada winces at the obscene picture in the Fornax mag. She turns the page and gets a good whiff off it. "Ugh… That's not pleasant."

"What're you…" Zero says suddenly and blearily behind her. "Ew."

Jada quickly closes the mag and turns to face him. She pushes him back down to the bed. "Don't move. You have a concussion. You should just lie still for a while."

Zero places a palm on his forehead and groans. "How long was I out?"

Jada checks her omni-tool. "About 2 hours."

Zero sits up slowly. "Geez… Where are we?"

"Auxiliary crew quarters." Jada mumbles as she files her nails with an emery board she had found. "It's a good place to hunker down because there aren't any monitors or cameras in here."

Zero nods and lays back down.

Jada reaches down and places the turian kid's energy bars on the edge of the bed. "I found these by the way."

Zero looks up and his eyes widen. He bolts up and grabs the box, tears the wrapper off one with his teeth and shoves the whole bar in his mouth.

He looks like he's about to cry. "These are so good."

"They're for kids so you know they'll taste good." Jada comments, picking one up to examine it.

Zero just grunts as he eats a few bars at a time.

Jada doesn't say anything more and just continues to read the Fornax mag and file her nails.

"So…" Zero says after a while, his mouth still full of sugary energy bar. "What's the plan from here?"

Jada shrugs. "I have no clue, really." She puts the magazine in her lap and looks actually thoughtful. "Though we _need_ to get Splicer, somehow."

Zero nods in agreement and lies back down. "That we _need_ to do. But we don't know where he is, or even how difficult that'll be. I mean, we're in enemy hands for goodness sakes. He'll likely be under heavy guard."

Jada sits thoughtfully. "I'm thinking… we disguise ourselves. I already passed myself off as one of the asari guards."

There's suddenly a loud and deep toned pop somewhere in the distance, followed by the ship shaking slightly.

The alarm starts to scream loudly.

"_This is the Captain speaking!"_ The batarian captain's voice roars over the intercom. _"We have been boarded by an unidentified vessel! All hands to Port Airlock immediately! Intruders are heavily armed and extremely dangerous!"_

Zero looks at Jada. "I guess we have our plan then?"

Jada nods. "Let's wait for a little bit, then attack the slavers from behind. Good plan?"

Zero starts to sit up. "I say we grab Splicer while everyone is distracted."

Jada frowns. "No, we have to take out the opposition first."

Zero stands up slowly, tottering slightly once he's on his feet. "No, we won't stand a chance against all those mercs, we need to get Splicer and figure it out from there. Besides we don't even know who these 'intruders' are. They could be hostile."

Jada sighs and tosses Zero a shotgun. "Fine, we'll go with your idea."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"I've never been in a fight like this before!" Isaac shouts, gripping his pistols tightly.

"Me neither!" Jacob shouts back, popping out of cover momentarily to shoot at the slavers down the hall with his assault rifle. "Damn, there are a lot of those slavers!"

"Got to be at least 30, if not 40." Farro growls, gripping his assault rifle tightly.

Isaac lowers his body down from the top of the crates as many more bullets start hitting it. "A lot more just came in!"

Jacob peeks around the crates but immediately pulls his head back. "Make that like 60."

Farro sneers and takes out a grenade.

"Don't!" Isaac shouts. "We're still in the boarding ramp! You could blow a hole in the hull or decompress us or something."

Farro curses and stows his ordinance. "Where's the krogan?"

"Which one?" Jacob shouts back.

"The big one, dammit!" Farro cries.

Isaac sees someone near the entrance of his ship. It's the quiet young krogan, whose name escapes him.

Isaac nudges Farro and Jacob. "There's the kid krogan! He wants to move up! Let's cover him!"

They each nod and all three pop out of cover and unleash their gun storm against the horde of slavers.

Most duck behind cover but many know their firepower is superior and stay out. The trio is forced behind cover again as their shields take damage. Luckily the short attack they just did was enough to get the krogan over here.

"Kid!" Isaac shouts at him. "Where's Tyrannax?"

The kid shrugs and keeps his eye on his enemy.

Isaac curses and looks at the kid. "We need to lighten the attack a little! And we need to get this done fast! The Collectors are right behind us!"

The kid nods and Isaac can see a bluish and purplish glow waft off of him like he just took a hot shower and stood outside in cold weather. The light wafting off from him brightens and starts to roll over his body, making him look like he is ablaze.

The glow becomes bright blue and the young krogan rises and stands in the center of the boarding ramp. For a second, Isaac is concerned for the small krogan's safety. He's no larger than a young teen boy. But then he sees that the bullets just seem to stop completely in front of the boy.

The young krogan raises his hands and a huge blue wall of swirling bright light appears in the hall. The wall flashes with light where bullets hit it. As they pass through, they slow substantially to a halt then float up to the ceiling.

Isaac stands slowly, followed by his crewmen after a second.

"Damn kid." Isaac mumbles approaching the krogan. "This is impressive."

The krogan grunts in response.

Isaac plucks a bullet from the air and tosses it aside. He readies his weapon as the krogan starts to walk down the hall toward the slavers, who all slowly start to back away.

"How long can you keep this up, Hirvio?" Jacob asks him, slowly advancing with his shotgun ready.

Hirvio shrugs but he is clearly struggling.

Farro growls impatiently. "Just throw them down and I can take them out with the grenade."

"That's not an option." Isaac says firmly to him.

The crates lying around them nearby suddenly start to rattle, then shake violently.

The entire congregation all look over their shoulders. Tyrannax storms towards them, Kalros shouldered and aimed at the enemy, looking three times as massive in his custom armor.

With every armor innovation he'd ever thought up in his armor, Tyrannax was invincible. And with every weapon innovation he'd ever thought up at his disposal, he was nigh unstoppable.

Isaac pushes Jacob aside and Farro moves to the other side of the hall when they realize Tyrannax isn't going to stop.

The krogan child, Hirvio, dives behind some crates and lowers the barrier and immediately after a blizzard of bullets hail down the hall.

Tyrannax doesn't stop. He becomes less of a black beast stomping down the hall, and more of a towering inferno of sparks that charges at the enemy. Bullets hit his front at every angle but he just keeps going.

Then, even louder than the sound of all of the slavers' weapons firing at once, Tyrannax's Kalros fires into the crowd, killing 4 men with a single shot, one of which is obliterated entirely; turned straight into a red mist of blood and gore.

Some of the slavers stand their ground, and are killed immediately by Tyrannax. Many retreat. Most retreat.

The docking ramp clears of slavers and Tyrannax stops about midway. He turns around, lowering his rifle.

"You guys suck." Tyrannax grunts, his helmet making his voice sound even deeper, if that's even possible.

Isaac stands slowly. "That was… impressive."

Tyrannax shrugs. "Let's keep moving. We have a lot of ground to cover."

Suddenly Vaga comes out of the ship roaring at the top of his lungs with his assault rifle ready.

He stops and frowns when he notices no enemies in the area. "What the hell? Where'd they all go?"

"Tyrannax scared them off." Jacob replies.

Vaga curses. "Damn. I wish I were here to see that."

"Don't be too disappointed." Tyrannax says loudly, approaching the group. "We're not done yet. This ship is pretty big and we have a lot of ground to cover and less time to do it in. So I think we should split up."

"Good idea." Isaac says with a curt upwards nod. "Okay, Vaga, Hirvio and I will take the stern of the ship. Tyrannax, you take Jacob and Farro and secure the bridge."

Tyrannax immediately turns around and starts to walk down the boarding ramp. "Let's go!"

Jacob and Farro rush after him. Tyrannax reaches the end of the boarding ramp and takes an immediate left. He is met with a barrage of gunfire. He roars, fires a burst of hell from his gun and disappears around the corner.

Jacob and Farro follow and leave Isaac and his team alone.

Isaac turns to Hirvio and Vaga. "Alright you guys, we have people to find."

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Jada peeks around the corner, pulling her head back slightly at the sight of numerous slavers running down an adjacent hall. She pokes her head back out and makes sure the coast is clear before signaling Zero forward.

They cut around the corner and sneak, half-crouched, down the hall along the wall.

"Jada." Zero whispers behind her.

She stops and looks over her shoulder. "What?"

"Where are we going again?" Zero sounds slightly embarrassed as he says it. "My memory is a little fuzzy."

Jada laughs quietly. "How hard did you hit your head again?"

"Hard enough to not be able to remember it."

Jada rolls her eyes and opens her omni-tool again. "We're going to find out stuff. According to the omni-tool it says they might be in the Armory."

Zero nods. "Okay got it… I think."

Jada closes her omni-tool and leads Zero down to the other end of the hall. She makes sure it's clear before taking a left and going towards the armory at the end of the hall.

She stops outside the door, her assault rifle hugged close to her chest. Zero goes to the other side, with his shotgun low and cradled in his hands.

Jada nods at him and opens the door.

They both roll into the room and quickly snap their weapons up, ready for anything.

The two occupants of the room, a batarian and a turian, look over their shoulders at Jada and Zero. They widen their eyes and reach for weapons.

Zero fires his shotgun three times into the turian, throwing him flat against the rack of weapons and painting them blue with his blood. The batarian is peppered in the chest by a long burst of fire from Jada after he spins around with a rifle. She rushes up and finishes him off with a violent rifle butt across the head.

Jada tosses her rifle onto a table behind her and starts to look around the small rectangular room. "Zero, start looking for our stuff."

Zero just ignores her because he's already looking for their stuff. He examines each of the weapon racks lining the walls and doesn't recognize anything.

He sighs in defeat. "Find anything?"

Jada turns around and leans against the wall in disappointment. "No." She looks up and frowns. "What's that?"

Zero looks up at a small hatch with a ladder. He shrugs and walks up to the ladder. He mounts it and climbs it with his shotgun held at the ready in his other hand. He reaches the hatch and pushes it open and goes into the room above.

It's a small room, with a table in the center of it and shelves with oblong crates on them and a small window on the ceiling. Zero makes sure it's clear before calling down to Jada.

She joins him in the small room and looks around slightly confused. "Where the fuck are we?"

Zero shrugs and walks over to one of the crates, which he now realizes is an armor case. He yanks it off the shelf and hefts it onto the table. He flips the catches and throws the lid up.

"Whoa…" He mumbles, lifting a huge krogan helmet out of it.

The mask is old and crappy looking and it's a faded red color.

"What is this room?" Jada asks, rhetorically.

Zero frowns and examines the case. "There's a tag here… It says… Armor, Urdnot; Actus, Tonn; Tuntau."

Jada rolls her eyes. "Put that back, we need to get out of here and find our stuff so we can get Splicer."

"That's the thing though." Zero says as he puts the krogan helmet back and replaces the case on the shelf. "I think this is where they keep the stuff they take from their victims."

"So you think it's in here?" Jada ask walking up to one of the cases. "Well let's get rummaging then."

They start checking cases and after a long while they find their weapons and armor along with Splicer's weapons and armor.

Immediately after she finds it, Jada opens her armor case and kisses her helmet right on its artificial lips. "I missed you!"

"Hurry up and get that on, we have to-" A loud boom interrupts him and they both look up at the massive ship that just appeared above them. "Go…"

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Fuck!" The captain roars, slamming his fist against the cockpit window at the sight of the Collector ship. After a short pause, the captain turns and storms towards his 1st mate. "I want those intruders dead! Now!"

The 1st mate nods and walks off without a word and pushes a sprinting security officer out of the way.

"Captain!" The security officer yells as he stumbles into the pilothouse.

"What?"

"Sir, I found the prisoners, they're in Confiscated Goods storage in the Armory." The officer responds, slightly breathless.

The captain growls in happiness. "Par'Thet." Par'Thet sneers in pleasure. "Go get them." Par'Thet immediately storms off toward the door. "Par'Thet." He stops. "Don't kill them."

Par'Thet growls low in his voice and scowls at the captain before he leaves again. The captain turns around and walks up to the window again.

He sighs. "This day went to shit quickly…"

There's a boom from somewhere beyond the pilothouse, in the adjacent bridge, followed by a cry of pain. The door opens and the cries of agony get instantly louder.

"Oh shit!" The captain curses as he sees his 1st mate dragging himself around the corner, torn in half, his entrails dragging behind him in the growing trail of blood and gore, gasping and crying in agony.

"Captain!" He howls. "Run!"

He is turned into a red mist and a hole the size of a food tray is formed in the deck.

The Captain looks up at the giant black monster stomping towards him, the butt of a portable cannon of some sort pressed against his shoulder with one arm.

The enormous krogan approaches and he's so big he seems to fill the room with his encompassing presence.

The Captain just backs away, overheating his pistol with shots. He throws the gun and biotic attacks at the krogan, to no effect. The captain hits the wall and the krogan presses the barrel of his weapon, which could easily fit the captain's entire arm, against the Captain's chest.

The krogan keeps a firm pressure with his gun against the Captain as he turns to look at two more intruders, a human and a turian. "Got him."

They run up and the human nods with approval. "Good job."

The krogan turns back to the captain. "Listen. I'm going to turn you over to this guy here." The krogan indicates the turian. "He's going to squeeze some information from you... If you don't talk, I'll squeeze your gut right out of your mouth."

The krogan pulls the gun back and the turian wastes no time and grabs the captain. He throws him onto the floor. The krogan keeps his gun aimed at the Captain's head while the turian beats the captain. The turian stomps down on the captain's back, forcing him to the floor. The turian leans against his knee and keeps the captain flat on the ground.

"Where are Splicer and his team being held?" The scarred turian asks, with a tone that says: "I don't have time for your shit, just tell me so I don't have to get blood on my armor."

"Splicer is in stasis in Forward Containment." The captain says with strain due to the pressure on his chest. "His friends escaped their cells and are running rampant through the ship."

"Good. Now listen." The turian growls quietly. "You're going to get on that intercom and tell your men to stand down if you want to live."

The Captain nods reluctantly and the turian lifts him and pushes him against the terminal. He presses the button and holds the Captain at arm's length, away from the intercom, so he doesn't try anything sneaky.

"This is the Captain speaking." The Captain says, his voice echoed by the intercom and sounding breathless. "All hands lay down your arms. Do not attack the enemy. I repeat: All hands, lay down your-"

He is interrupted as he is blown in half at the diaphragm by Tyrannax's weapon. The Captain's face stretches into a soundless agonized scream and he dies after a second. Farro lets go of his neck and the Captain's corpse slides off the console onto the floor to join the rest of his corpse.

Jacob and Farro look at Tyrannax.

"That's my bad. Kalros tends to misfire… But did you see the look on his face?" Tyrannax starts laughing maniacally and Jacob and Farro glare at him.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Jada, hurry up!" Zero shouts at her as she latches her boot on.

"Sorry!" Jada shouts back. "This armor is complicated, just get down there, I'll catch up!"

Zero rolls his eyes, closes his helmet and slides down the ladder, one handed with his shotgun in his other hand. His feet hit the deck and he instantly feels hand violently grip his armor. He is hurled in an arc over the table and he crashes on the ground and rolls into the wall. His back hits the wall and he looks up at the assailant.

Par'Thet the giant batarian takes slow steps forward. He stoops down and scoops Zero's shotgun from the floor. He places it on the table and draws a long and jagged piece of metal from his belt.

Par'Thet bends down and holds Zero's sharp and bloodstained shank in Zero's face, near his eye. "I'm going to make you pay for taking my eye out. For the eye I lost, I'm going to cut you to pieces just with this." Par'Thet grabs Zero's face and presses the tip of the shank against the edge of Zero's eye socket. "I think I'll start here."

Zero, knowing he needs to buy time for Jada, who is slowly going down the ladder to maintain silence, spits in Par'Thet's face.

Par'Thet snaps back and wipes his face. He looks back down at Zero, eyes wide with rage. He roars and dives down at Zero but Jada catches the collar of his armor. She kicks him in the back of the knee to get him down to her height, and she wraps her arm around his neck, ready to break it.

Par'Thet however, throws his arm straight up to block her headlock. He reaches his other arm over and yanks Jada over his back and throws her straight into the bulkhead. Her unarmored head hits the wall with a bang and she drops to the floor, her hand pressed against the top of her head.

Par'Thet stands and reaches for the shotgun on the table but Zero dives forward and grabs his arm with both of his. Zero forces the shotgun out of Par'Thet's hand but Par'Thet drives his hand into Zero's shoulder and pins him down on the table.

And then Zero feels it. That little spark in your belly, the little warmth that tells you that you can do something and you can do it like a fucking badass.

Zero takes that energy, that chi, that drive, and turns it into a biotic force. Zero's aura glows so bright that the room glows with only his light. He roars and throws his palms into Par'Thet's stomach.

There's a deafening boom and the shockwave that threw Par'Thet straight into the ceiling also destroyed every light fixture in the room and threw loose objects around the room.

Par'Thet's limp mush of a corpse dangles from the ceiling and gooey globs of gore drip from it. He looks like a giant fly. Zero looks away from the corpse and inwardly applauds himself. He's never smashed a person into mush before. Zero cringes and avoids looking at him and from getting drips of gore on him. He picks his shotgun back up from the floor and he walks over to Jada who is just getting to her feet.

"Ugh…" Jada groans, rubbing her head. "I just got up to fight when your stupid biotics threw my head into the wall again."

"Sorry about that." Zero says less than sincerely as he examines his shotgun to make sure it's functioning properly. "I tend to get a little… Overzealous?"

"Only when it comes to biotics or…" Jada picks up an assault rifle and walks over to the door.

"Generally?" Zero asks joining her by the door. "Yes. I can often get a little overzealous in other situations."

Jada smirks and opens the door.

And they charge into the fray.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

Isaac walks confidently down the hall with Vaga and Hirvio following. A slaver rounds the far corner, spots them, shouts in alarm, and raises his weapon.

Isaac quick-draws one of his pistols and shoots the slaver 3 times in the chest with such speed that Vaga hadn't even the time to raise his rifle. Isaac holsters his pistol in an unnecessarily flashy manner before jogging down the hall again.

"Where are we going?" Vaga asks no one in particular. Hirvio shrugs and sort of glares at Isaac for some reason.

Isaac shrugs. "We're looking for your friends."

"Yeah… But how do we know where to look for them?"

"We don't." Isaac responds looking up and down the hall for any more enemies. "We're just looking."

They all jump and dive out of the open at the sound of a shotgun blast.

"Fall back!" They hear a batarian scream.

A squad of slavers rushes past the hidden squad, a few lagging behind to fire at their pursuers. One is hit by a burst of assault rifle fire that travels up his torso and onto his face. He dies, obviously, and his two friends who decided to be brave die quickly as well, one of whom is spun into a wall by biotics.

Vaga peeks out and sees a pair of black armored soldiers running down the corridor towards them and he recognizes their signature helmets immediately; Jada with the hands over her eyes, and Zero with just a simple 0 with a slash through it on one side of the helmet.

"Zero! Jada!"

The freeze and point their weapons but quickly drop them.

"Vaga?" Zero calls, his mask sliding off his face. "Is that you?"

"Yeah!" Vaga runs out towards them. "Spirits I feel like I haven't seen you two in years!"

Vaga embraces them both, much to Zero's discomfort.

Zero pushes him off. "Yeah, okay. Where's your ship?"

"Port Docking Ramp." Isaac informs him walking up and offering a hand. "My name is Isaac Bishop. It's my ship that's saving your asses."

"Thanks." Zero reaches for Isaac's hand but he turns and offers it to Jada as she takes off her helmet.

"Hello, my name is Isaac. It's a pleasure to meet you." He says with a charming smile.

"Fuck off." Jada smacks his hand away and he rubs it with a shocked expression plastered on his face.

Jada continues down the hall past them. "Come on, we need to find Splicer."

The group starts to follow and Zero turns to look at Vaga. "You guys wouldn't happen to know where he is on this ship by any chance, would you."

"Let me check." Isaac says raising a hand to his ear. "Jacob? You reading me? ... Good do you know where they're holding Splicer?" There's a slight pause. "Thanks Jacob. Splicer's in the Forward Containment. Jacob and his team are on their way there because they're closer. We should just head back to the ship."

"No, not without Splicer." Jada hisses at him.

"Listen lady." Isaac starts. "I don't know who you are, but you don't order me around."

Jada swings around and catches his throat. She lifts him up off the ground one handed, her thin hand hooked like a vice on his neck.

Isaac gags and tries to struggle but she's too damn strong. Finally however Jada starts to float off the ground and toward the ceiling. She releases Isaac and looks around confused. She growls and glares at Hirvio with his arm raised lazily at her. She attempts to swim through the air at him but fails and just bumps against the ceiling.

"Thanks kid." Isaac says, getting to his feet and rubbing his neck.

"Hirvio!" Zero shouts extremely loudly. "Put her down we need to get out of here before the Collectors decide to just take their prizes!"

Hirvio lowers his arm and Jada lands nimbly on her feet. She moves for Hirvio but doesn't take more than two steps.

She sighs through her nose and picks her shotgun back up off the ground. "Let's go to the ship. You, Isaac whatever, lead the way and don't dawdle."

Isaac glares at her and jogs down the hall, leading them back towards the ship.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"Okay…" Jacob whispers crouched across from Farro next to an open doorway to Forward Containment. "On 3… 1… 2…"

Tyrannax just walks in and shoots two of the 5 guards instantly. He grabs one who tries to escape by the head and smashes him on the ground. The other two make an attempt to run but he draws one of his dual shotguns and shoots them both quickly. He holsters it and starts to examine the pods as Jacob and Farro join him in the room.

"Tyrannax!" Jacob protests. "Seriously man! You need to stop doing that!"

"Doing what?" He asks without stopping his search for Splicer. "Saving us time? Because all that sneaking around just slows things down. There are Collectors incoming. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible. So grow a quad and just go for it."

Jacob rolls his eyes and walks over to a console. He types into it and searches for Splicer on it.

"Looks like he's in that one." Jacob says loudly pointing at one of the pods near the end of the wall of pods. "All I can do here is detach his pod from the wall. We'll need to bring him back to the ship and manually turn off the stasis."

"Let's do it." Farro says nodding at him.

Jacob types some commands into the terminal and the pod slides down from the wall with a hiss and hovers above the ground. The ship suddenly starts shaking violently and the bright white lights shut off and leave only the dull red emergency lights.

"_The Collectors have boarded our vessel!"_ A voice shouts panicked over the intercom. _"All hands abandon ship!"_

"That's our cue to haul ass!" Tyrannax roars kicking the pod out the door.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile…<strong>

"_Get the engines started!"_ Jacob roars over his comm. _"We're on the docking ramp! The Collectors are right on our asses!"_

Isaac vaults over the galaxy map and runs to the cockpit. He starts the ship and begins removing the docking clamps. There's a loud bang from somewhere below and soon Jacob appears on the bridge.

"Let's go!" He roars.

The ship pulls off from the slaver ship, which is stuck to the underside of the massive Collector ship.

"Do we have Splicer?" Isaac roars piloting the ship quickly away from the Collector ship.

"Yeah, he's on the ship. Tyrannax could have been a little more gentle with him but we got him!"

"Good… Oh shit!" Isaac guns the engines. "The Collector ship is coming this way!"

Jacob spins around and charges at the ladder. "Farro! Get the engines ready for a FTL jump!"

"15 seconds!" Comes the response from 3 decks down.

"They're catching up to us!" Vaga, who just got on the bridge shouts in fear. "Oh what are they doing?"

"They're going to fire on us!" Isaac curses and starts to swerve the ship. "Brace for evasive maneuvers!"

A golden beam of light shoots out past the cockpit and only barely misses the ship. Isaac continues to frantically swerve the ship away from the pursuing beam of golden doom.

"Farro!" Jacob roars.

"The Drive Core is ready! Go!" Farro roars from down below.

Isaac immediately slams his fist on the button to send the ship into FTL. And then with a flash of bluish light, they're safe and far from the Collector ship.

Isaac sighs in relief and sits back in the chair. "We did it."

* * *

><p><strong>9:19 PM May 14, 2182<strong>

The insides of my eyelids are illuminated from a light overhead. And my head hurts. That must have been one hell of a nap.

I yawn loudly and stretch. I open my eyes slowly and look at the blurry silhouettes above me. "What'd I miss?"

Someone, Alex hopefully, dives onto the bed and kisses me hard on the lips. I'm confused.

Alex stops kissing me and starts to sob. "Splicer, I'm so glad you're okay!"

I frown and my vision clears and I see Jada, Zero, Tyrannax, Nelyna, Nata, Vaga, Ram, and most notably Alex all above me. "So… what happened?"

"Remember?" Jada says with a small smile. "We got kidnapped. You were in stasis."

"No… not really." I mumble with a frown.

"Oh… Well alright then." Jada throws up her arms and walks off.

Zero shakes his head. "I'm glad you're alright, Splicer. You need your rest right now."

I stare around the room. "Where am I?"

"You're at your house… are you alright?" Nelyna asks looking concerned and amused.

"I think so…" I mumble sitting up. "Wasn't my bed against the other wall?"

"No…" Nata shakes her head. "Quit fooling around."

I shrug. "I'm not. I'm so confused right now."

Vaga suddenly looks like he remembered something direly important. "Right! The doctor said some side effects of the stasis could be dementia, short term memory loss, and confusion. And… he gave me pills to give you but… I uh, dropped them in the lake…"

Nelyna frowns at him. "You took them didn't you?"

"Little bit." Vaga says with a nod.

"Splicer." Ram says catching my attention. "I have to go home to do some work, but I baked you this cake."

"Oh! Thanks… oh… Uh… thanks." I grimace at the speckled and greenish cake. Smells like lemon chicken. I don't think I'll eat this.

Ram leaves the room with a proud smile.

"Splicer." Tyrannax says, tearing my attention from the cake. "Good to have you back."

"Uh, thanks, Tyrannax… why are you here?"

He glares and leaves.

I'm so confused.

Alex kisses me again and rests her head on my chest. "I'm so glad you're back, Splicer."

"I am too… I think." Then suddenly everything comes back to me. "Oh my God! I was in stasis! What… oh!"

I flip Alex over and kiss her with everything I got.

"Splicer!" She laughs. "What're you doing?"

"I just remembered everything. And quit complaining." I kiss her again and I never want to let her go.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: In my opinion it ended rather abruptly. Oh well. I hope you guys liked it. Are you guys as psyched as I am for the Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut? I haven't played it yet so don't spoil anything. I'm not sure when It's coming out for PS3 though. I've heard mixed things. IGN says it doesn't come out until July 4 for PS3, but most other places say only European PS3 owners won't get it until July 4 and everybody else gets it today. Whatever.**

**Anyways leave a review if you want or you can just leave. Either way I'll see you next week. Maybe.**

**Mockingbird79**


	30. Chapter 30 Seven Circles

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: I scrapped this chapter 3 times before settling on a final draft and holy hell this one is long. It's like 27 pages. Don't worry, huge chapters won't be the norm. But by now my story could amount to approximately 600+ pages. Some things in this chapter may seem random, but trust me: Nothing in this story is random.**

"**You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."**

**~Winston Churchill~**

**Ch. 30: Seven Circles**

**5:41 PM May 19, 2182**

I groan. "Oh fuck… I'm late."

"Late for what?" Zero asks beside me. Because of his fringe, his mask can't flip up; instead it splits down the middle and goes to either side of his head. The design for his is much less elaborate than mine or Jada's. Zero said that he prefers battle to design it. No arguments from me.

"Today's my one month anniversary with Alex. I was supposed to be at my apartment like 15 minutes ago." I say anguished. "Can you two finish up from here?"

Jada nods. "Sure."

"Thanks you guys." I say stepping over the bound gangsters. "I owe you one."

I leave the gang hideout which used to be a garage or factory of sorts and jog the few blocks down to my apartment building.

I run into the elevator and start riding it up.

At the 3rd floor it stops and it opens to reveal an asari and a turian.

"Oh…" The turian says nervously. "Uh… we'll just take the next one."

I nod at them and the door closes again. I must look pretty freaky with the mask and the armor and stuff. Intimidation is an important factor in battle though, so I'm keeping the helmet. It looks too badass and it was too expensive.

The elevator reaches the top floor and I run into my apartment. "Alex? Sorry I'm late… Alex?"

Hm… the place is empty. "Cloves, is Alex here?"

"_No, sir. Ms. Silva has not entered the building since yesterday afternoon and she left this morning."_ Cloves responds.

Hm. Odd. A new message on my omni-tool makes me jump.

I open it. Oh it's from Alex, it reads:

_I'm so SORRY!_

_New case just came in and they need me down here, so I'll be here all night! So sorry! I feel awful, but I'll make it up to you!_

_I love you!_

I let out a breath of relief. Phew. I was almost in trouble.

I type a short response.

_It's okay. I didn't have anything super special planned. Hope you have a fun night…_

_Love ya!_

I close my omni-tool and stretch… alright! Looks like I have the place all to myself for tonight!

There's a light knock at my door. Damn… so much for me-time.

I open the door and Nelyna stares wide eyed back at me.

"Something wrong?" I ask confused.

She backs a step away slightly. "Who are you?"

Oh! My helmet's still on.

I detach the seals and pull it off. She lets out a sigh. "Goddess, you frightened me! When did you get that?"

I shrug. "About a week ago. What's up, Nelyna?"

She smiles. "I haven't seen you in a while, thought I'd drop by."

That's true. She's been rather busy at the Consort's. "Okay. Won't you come in?"

"Thank you." She walks past me and removes her jacket. "So were you just doing something dangerous or are you just really paranoid right now."

I chuckle. "I was just doing a job with Zero and Jada. They're finishing up."

She furrows her brow slightly. "Why aren't you with them?"

"Today's my anniversary with Alex and I thought I was late."

"Oh am I interrupting…?"

… "No! No, I just got here a minute or two ago. Alex is held up at work so we'll celebrate our one month and a day anniversary tomorrow."

She smiles and walks over to the couch. "Did you have anything special planned?"

I join her on the couch and place my helmet in my lap. "Yeah, I was going to cook for the first time in nearly 7 years. Nothing hard, just a salad and asari thing. But it's the thought that counts really. Oh! And I bought her this."

I take the necklace case off my coffee table and hand it to Nelyna. She opens it. "Oh, it's gorgeous! This looks like it cost a fortune."

I shrug. "Only the best for her."

She closes the box and smiles at me. "Aw… You really love her huh?"

I nod slowly staring at the ceiling.

Nelyna sighs. "I wish I could find that… In a few decades I'll be two hundred, my matron stage will be coming soon and I need to settle down and find a mate."

Asari stages… sounds so bizarre. In my head it was like some weird molt or something. I shiver unconsciously. "Just enjoy your maiden stage while it lasts. I guarantee that once you hit your matron stage, it'll be far easier to find a bond mate."

She sighs and scoots next to me and joins me in my staring at the ceiling, resting her head on my arm. "What species do you think I should aim for?"

I do a one armed shrug. "Not my place to say. What kind of genetic traits do you look for?"

She ponders for a moment. "Well… Krogan born asari are very strong and resilient and they often attain those scales which I find quite unappealing. But they also tend to live a little longer than normal asari and krogan have long life spans."

"Asari already live really long." I argue. "What species did your mother mate with?"

"Another asari." She responds neutrally. "Yes that's right. I'm pureblood."

I glance at her for a second then return my attention to the ceiling. "Keep going through your options."

"Okay." She says welcoming the distraction. "Uh… well there's asari obviously. That has a higher chance of making biotics but… nah not asari."

"Why not asari?" I ask. I'm just trying to be impartial on everything.

She shrugs. "Just don't want to have three generations of purebloods. Um… well volus is an easy elimination. We don't even breathe the same air it would be difficult to bond. Uh… There's salarian, but they die too quick."

I chuckle.

She giggles. "That was mean. Uh… Turian makes nice kids and that's the most common bonding. There's elcor but I think that might a fairly dull relationship. Quarian is too tough, there's too many dangers involved. Um… no vorcha."

I start laughing. "Why not? Don't find them handsome?"

She shudders. "Moving on… There's… batarian. That makes generally very smart kids, but I'd have to go all the way to the Terminus Systems for that. Um… Hanar is out the window too. I've never heard of an asari and hanar bonding and frankly I'd rather not be the first."

I smile. "You're not even a little curious about how that would work?"

She's about to say something but stops. "Actually now that you mention it, yes I sort of am. Okay I'm putting hanar back on the table."

Ew. "There's also human? Ever consider human?"

She's thoughtful for a moment. "The bonding does make rather unique facial marking patterns, so yes that's an option."

"What about drell?" I suggest.

She nods. "Yeah! I would love a drell bond mate! The children often have very beautiful skin tones of blue and the rarer teal. Drell will be at the top of the list, then human, then hanar."

"You're really sticking with that hanar?"

She nods. "Yeah, you got me curious."

I shudder again. "Right… well when you get around to your matron stage and you haven't found any lonely drell then I can set you up with Jada. She seems pretty open minded to me."

What a pairing that would be. Vaga would be proud.

Nelyna smiles. "I actually haven't had the pleasure of meeting Jada. What's she like?"

I ponder this question thoroughly. "Well… she's… a strong woman. Very headstrong and aggressive. She doesn't take any shit and doesn't give it either. She's kind of a flirt and she can be a bitch sometimes but she's nice once you get her to chill for a second or two."

Nelyna looks up at me. "You should introduce us."

I nod. "Alex doesn't like her. Maybe you three could have a girl's day out to try and get along."

Nelyna nods. "That sounds fun. Why doesn't Alex like her?"

"She's jealous." I blurt out. Think before you say stuff, Rob.

"Jealous?" Nelyna exclaims surprised. "Alex is gorgeous how could she be jealous of anyone?"

I give her a look that says how do you think?

Nelyna's eyes widen. "Is she that good looking?"

"Yep. She's a real bombshell." I say thinking back on when I first met Jada.

"Bombshell?" Nelyna asks confused.

I shake my head. "Earth slang. It means a woman with a nice appearance."

"Oh. Well Alex shouldn't have anything to worry about. You seem like the trustworthy type of guy." Nelyna says resting her head against my chest plate and staring at the coffee table.

"I suppose so…" I consider telling Nelyna about Jada's attempt at me, but I decide against it. "So. What are you doing out of the Consort's office so early?"

She sighs. "Sha'ira was feeling ill today so we closed early. I'll probably be off for a day or two as well."

I nod. "That's too bad. What do you do there, exactly?"

Of course I already know the answer to this, but I'd like the conversation to continue.

She sits up. "You mean other than the main greeter? I'm an acolyte for the Consort. Meaning I attend to clients that the Consort does not have time, or does not particularly need to attend to. Each acolyte is trained in a special art to sooth the body and the mind and attend to the desires of each client. My specialty is touch. I can find every tension point on your body, and relieve it."

"I could really use one of those." I mumble with a sigh. "All this fighting and stress has got me all knotted up."

She looks up at me. "We could if you wish."

I look at her. "Alright."

**A Few Moments Later…**

Nelyna unknots yet another muscle in my back and I groan. "Ah! You must be a fireball in bed!"

She laughs and unknots another muscle group. "When was the last time you had a massage?"

"Never." I croak as she goes to work on my neck.

She pauses. "Never? Dear Goddess, how have you survived?"

"Can't miss something you never had. But I don't know how I survived anymore." She's really not missing any inch is she…? Uh oh. "Uh… leave the sheet covered portion unexplored."

She pauses again. "As you wish."

"No offense intended." I say quickly. "I just prefer to keep those muscle groups tense… that came out wrong. I'll leave those spots to Alex. There that's better."

Nelyna laughs again and moves down to my spine.

Oh sweet Jesus. "Are your fingers ancient pieces of ecstasy technology? Created billions of years ago by whatever made this galaxy? And they were only discovered until just now by my spine?"

She chuckles again. "It just comes naturally I suppose."

"Could you give me a few pointers?" I ask as she starts massaging my calf. "I hear girls really like this kind of thing."

She giggles. "I think I could show you a few things.

**An Hour or So Later…**

"Like this?" I ask.

"Oh! Yeah. That's not bad." Nelyna says as I massage her back.

As I work I notice the facial markings aren't just on her face. "Hey I didn't know that the markings aren't just on your face."

She blushes slightly. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't stare."

"Oh! Sorry…" I mumble looking up at the wall. I turn around and start massaging her foot. Never really liked having to do this but apparently ladies love it. Hopefully Nelyna taught me well.

"Hey. That's not bad, Splicer. Your hands are pretty rough though." She says as I work.

Well sure. Bugs bore their way out of my skin on a regular basis, and my Armored Shell tonic toughened my skin. Now that I think about it, I haven't used my Insect Swarm in a long time thankfully.

I finish massaging Nelyna and stand. "How'd I do?"

She raises herself up slightly. "Not bad. Could be better, but not bad."

I shrug. "Coming from you that's a huge compliment. Now I'm going to go prepare some food. I'm quite hungry. Would you like anything?"

She nods. "Yeah. Just give me whatever you're having."

I leave the room. Well that was fun. A lot more fun than I thought it'd be.

… Somebody is walking around my apartment, looking around the room in interest. He's a human and looks like he's in his mid-thirties and around my height if not slightly taller. He's very physically fit and his grizzled and strong yet neat appearance screams a demeanor of sophistication, confidence, leadership, intelligence and power. His sky blue eyes scan the room in an analytical fascination and his dark brown mane of neatly combed hair hangs in his face slightly. He rubs his stubbly chin with a muscular hand and a small smile appears on his lips as he examines the room, seemingly oblivious to my presence. If he wasn't an intruder I'd say he's sort of handsome. The fuck? Did I just think that?

"Who the fuck are you?" I ask, causing the person to jump.

"Oh. Excuse me I was just looking around." He responds, continuing his examination of my apartment.

I frown. I'm so confused right now. "Where do you think you are? This isn't a museum."

He looks up at me. "I'm in my apartment."

"Your apartment?" What the hell is going on?

He nods. "Yes. This is my apartment."

… "No it's not. I pay the rent, it's my apartment."

"Why would you pay the rent on somebody else's apartment?" He responds frowning.

I face-palm. Dumbass. "I've lived here for months."

"I've lived here for years."

Oh my God. "Cloves. Does this idiot live in the building?"

"_No. According to my records he doesn't have a residence on the Citadel."_ Cloves responds causing the person to jump slightly and stare about the room interested. _"Would you like me to alert nearby C-Sec officers?"_

"No I like to take the trash out myself." I respond with a snarl approaching the stranger.

"_Very good, sir."_

I throw a punch into the stranger's rock solid belly, causing him to double over and fall on all fours.

I grab the back of his shirt and throw him outside. "Don't come back here again."

I slam the door and lock it. "Cloves, add that fellow to the building's watch list and exclusion list."

"_At once, sir."_

Nelyna leans out of my room. "What was that?"

I shrug. "Some nut-job came into my apartment and said it was his apartment. I punched him in the gut and threw him out."

She looks at me confused. "Your lead a very strange and eventful life, Splicer."

I shrug. "Get dressed. I'm going to start making the food."

Since the only thing I have is what I was going to make for Alex, I'll make that.

**8:49 PM May 14, 2182**

Nelyna puts her emptied plate on the coffee table with a sigh.

"How was it?" I ask looking at her.

She smiles. "Pretty good."

I sigh in relief. Looks like 7 years of hiatus can't damper my culinary skills. Though it's not really a challenge putting stuff in the oven and mixing salad. Still.

I take the plates into the kitchen and start doing the dishes. I savor the laborious task. I used to hate doing this back when I was a teen. But this is the first time I've done this in 7 years and I actually kind of missed it. Hell, when I went to Rapture, I missed everything I didn't have anymore.

Now I have all this new stuff. And I think I've changed for the better. I really grew up in Rapture. Sure I'm still kind of an idiot, but I'm not a kid anymore.

I return to the couch and take a seat next to Nelyna. "How's your sister?"

She smiles. "That's kind of you to ask. She's doing quite well. She took some time off after the Battle, but she's back to work and quite productive."

I nod. "That's good. She seemed pretty shaken during the Battle."

Nelyna smiles. "Yes, I'm glad she's better. What about you? Do you have any family?"

"No." I respond quickly.

She frowns. "No? You have no family?"

I nod. "Yes. I have no family."

"What happened?" She asks concerned.

"They're dead. Probably." If they're not dead then they can somehow live forever… Which would be kind of cool… Hm… Robots…

"Oh… I'm sorry. Probably dead?"

"Drop it, please." I say eyeing her.

She looks down at the floor. "Sorry…"

An awkward silence fills the room. Neither of us knows what to say so we just sit there.

Nelyna stands and stretches. "Well. It's getting late, so I'm going to head home. I'll see you tomorrow?"

I shrug. "Sure. See you, Nelyna."

She leaves, leaving me alone. Finally… some me-time. What should I do with it? I guess I can get in some exercising. Eh… Nah I just finished eating.

Well… I guess I can go out… Have some thinking time… Nah it's like 9 and it's warm in here. Besides I only like taking walks in the rain. Not because it's dramatic but because I like rain.

That's probably the one thing I hate about the Citadel. It doesn't rain. Maybe I should move to Khaje. Apparently it rains nearly nonstop there. Nah… Hanar kind of freak me out.

I sigh… I guess I don't have a lot of thoughts. I open my omni-tool and contact Jada.

"_Splicer. What's up?"_

"How'd the job go?" I ask standing and walking down the hall to my room.

"_Good. We got 21,000. The guy was reluctant to give the extra 6,000 for the biotic that was in the gang but we… persuaded him." _Jada says wryly.

"Persuaded him? Did you beat him up?"

"_Little bit."_

Dammit! I told her that customer courtesy is important. Hopefully this doesn't hurt my reputation. "Alright, well at least we got paid."

"_Glad to see you're… you're… Oh fuck!"_

I distinctly hear an explosion erupt.

"Jada?" I say concerned. "Jada?"

I hear her coughing on the other line. "Gang hideout! Hurry!"

I'm already in my armor and running back into the main room of my apartment.

I grab my guns which are sitting on my table next to my helmet. I attach my guns to my armor and run out of the apartment, putting on my helmet as I go.

I run into the stairwell and start running down the flights of stairs. This is taking too long!

I hop over the banister and plummet 6 floors to the ground floor. My Kinetic Distribution system absorbs the force and a blast wave throws a person off their feet.

"Sorry!" I call behind me as I run out the door.

I see smoke billowing upwards in the distance and the sound of distant gunfire.

Some people are fleeing away from the smoke. A woman spots me and runs up to me.

"Splicer! You have to hurry! A bunch of soldiers in red armor attacked your team! They crashed a car into an apartment building and a bunch of people are trapped inside! You have to help, they're going to burn!" She cries sounding panicked.

I nod. "I'll stop them, now get to safety!"

I sprint away charging down the street toward the smoke column.

I reach the block where the gang hideout is and I see the adjacent apartment building is on fire. There's a large squad of mercenaries in heavy blood red armor rushing into the gang hideout.

"SNAKE: Contact Zero!"

Zero picks up after two rings. _"Splicer, we're pinned down in the gang hideout!"_

I look at the building which is ablaze. I can hear a few people screaming inside. "Can you hold them off for a while? The apartment building next to the hideout is on fire and there're people trapped inside."

There's a long pause. _"I don't know. There's too many of them!"_

Fuck! Moral dilemma! If I don't help Zero and Jada they may be killed. But if I don't try and save the people in the apartment building then… they'll die! And if I continue to stand here mulling over my decision everyone will die! Fuck!

I start running toward the apartment building. "Sorry, Zero. But I have to save the people in the apartment building. Hold them off for… 2 minutes. I'll help as soon as I can!"

"_Alright. Hurry."_ I hear him growl.

I charge through the door to the building and run over to the building's VI which is flickering and failing.

"_Evacuate the building immediately! Fire retardant systems have failed! This is not a drill! Evacuate the building immediately! Fire retardant systems have failed! This is not a drill!"_ It repeats.

"VI! How many people are left in the building?" I yell over the roar of flames.

"_Scanning… There are 3 life signatures left in the building."_

"Where are they?" I yell flinching as a console explodes.

"_They are in apartment 401."_

I charge into the stairwell and up the stairs. I need a freaking jetpack!

A bunch of flaming debris blocks the stairs 3 floors up.

Dammit!

I activate Winter's Blast and try to freeze the debris, but it doesn't do anything. Fuck! There's no water in the air!

I stop and think for a second. Concussive Force might work!

I activate it and blast the debris with a wave.

The fire instantly gets put out and the debris is thrown out of the way.

I stumble up the stairs and up to the 4th floor. I round the corner to room 401 where I distinctly hear people screaming inside.

I kick the door in and run inside.

An asari, human man, and their infant child are huddled together in the corner of the room as the flames engulf their apartment.

The flames stand between me and the family. I take a few steps back and leap through the flames.

I land clumsily on a table on the other side, my arm flaming.

I pat it out and run up to the family.

They recognize me and look up at me hopefully.

I squat down next to them. "This place is coming down! We need to go out the window!"

The asari's eyes widen. "Are you insane? We're 4 floors up!"

I shake my head. "We don't have a choice! Don't worry I'll protect you from the fall!"

I stand and face the window. Let's see 4 floors up. That's about 40 feet which is around 12 meters. The atmosphere should still be stable at this height. I use Concussive Force to blast the window out.

I motion the family to come to me and they run up to me collectively.

I wrap my arms around them and pick them up with a little difficulty. "Ready?"

"No!" The human yells.

"Too bad!"

I leap backwards out of the window, taking the family with me. Flame explodes out of the apartment just as we clear the building. We plummet 40 feet to the ground and I land flat on my back.

No shock absorbers on my back… Ow…

I release the family and they get off of me quickly.

I groan and get to my feet slowly.

"Thank you!" The human says relieved.

I draw my shotgun and turn around and face the gang hideout. "Don't mention it…"

I run inside with my shotgun raised. I blast an enemy who was standing next to the doorway in the stomach just as I enter.

I run further inside, following the sounds of battle.

As I round a corner into the main room, a large garage like room of the hideout, a krogan with a sword in one hand and an omni-blade in the other charges at me.

What the fuck?

I duck under his spinning slash as he reaches me and drive my shoulder into his stomach.

He coughs and growls, but I don't let him recover. I grab him around the waist and twist him over my head, driving his head into the hard metal floor.

He grunts but seems mostly unharmed as he rolls away and back to his feet.

I point my shotgun at him and he pauses.

He scoffs. "If you were a real warrior, you would fight me as a man! You would not hide behind your guns! You would fight me hand to hand!"

I frown under my helmet. Why do people think that'll work?

I turn on Slug Mode and blow his head and hump off his body.

Idiot.

I holster my shotgun and am about to draw my assault rifle when I am sandwiched between two more krogan who charged into me from either side.

The back away and I fall to my knees coughing. Oh… That really hurt.

One krogan grabs the back of my head and pulls it back. He presses the tip of a sword to my neck. "Your bastard! You killed our brother!"

"Kill him Fenrix!" The other roars.

"No I want to see the look on his face!" The krogan holding me, presumably Fenrix says maliciously.

"What? You probably can't even get his helmet off!" The other krogan grunts.

"Is that a challenge?" Fenrix scoffs.

"You're damn right it is!"

Fenrix chuckles and drops his sword. He circles around behind me and worms his fingers under my helmet and start tugging.

"Ha! You're more likely to pull his head off doing that!"

"Quiet! I almost got it!" Fenrix responds.

After a few seconds, that feel like ages, stretch on Fenrix gives up, tossing me to the ground.

"Why didn't it come off?" Fenrix roars with frustration.

"Because you're weak!" The other krogan roars. "Let me try!"

He stomps toward me but I activate Winter's blast and freeze his feet to the ground.

"What? What is this?" The other krogan roars.

Fenrix stares at his brother for a moment before starting to laugh. "You're such and idiot Ganx. He froze you to the floor! That's funny!"

Ganx growls. "Shut your mouth!"

Fenrix falls to the ground laughing. These guys are strange.

I get to my feet slowly and crack my neck. Thank goodness my helmet is attached to my armor otherwise that krogan would've pulled my head off.

Fenrix takes off the mask of his armor and tosses it aside as he laughs. "Oh damn! I need air!"

Ganx growls and removes his mask as well and starts using it to bash at the ice at his feet.

Whoa. That's interesting. They look exactly the same. Twin krogan. Interesting.

I freeze Fenrix to the floor with Winter's Blast and start running toward the gunfire again.

"Oh… Wow…" Ganx says stifling laughter behind me.

Fenrix sighs. "Fuck you…"

I reach the sound of the fighting and peek into the room where the fighting is coming from.

A squad of 4 soldiers is firing at a block of concrete which has already been eaten up a lot by continuous fire.

Their leader, who is clearly a higher rank than them because his armor is white and red, paces behind them with his assault rifle against his shoulder. "Keep up the fire boys! They can't hide forever!"

Their guns all overheat at about the same time. During the cease fire, Zero and Jada pop out of cover simultaneously and blast two soldiers with their shotguns.

They fall to the ground with the top halves of their bodies missing.

I take the opportunity to swing around and headshot another merc with my assault rifle.

The captain whirls around to face me bringing his assault rifle up as well.

I charge at him and draw my knife as I charge, letting my shields take the assault rifle fire from him, and I tackle him to the floor.

"Soldier! Help me!" He cries as I struggle to stab him with my knife.

I look up at the soldier who spins around to shoot me. But his head explodes as another shotgun blast eradicates him.

I smile and look back down at the captain. I punch him in the face then drive my knife into his neck.

He gurgles and goes limp.

I stand and crack my back. That fall really hurt me. I should get another massage from Nelyna tomorrow. I run over to Zero and Jada who are still crouched behind the block.

I round the corner and they point their shotguns at me.

"Just me." I say raising my hands.

Zero lowers his shotgun and gasps in pain, clutching at his stomach.

I notice blood seeping between his fingers. I crouch down next to him and administer some medi-gel.

He sighs in relief as the anesthetic takes effect and he stands slowly.

I notice his mask has taken a few bullets and there are a few new gouges and scratches in it.

"You took your sweet time." He says with a chuckle.

I shrug. "You know me. Dramatic entrances are my number 1 goal."

He chuckles and Jada gets to her feet as well.

"Are you hurt?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "No, I'm fine."

I nod. "Who are these guys?"

They shrug.

"No idea." Zero says.

I run over to the dead captain.

I grab his omni-tool and use it. I scroll down the messages until I get to the latest one. It reads:

_Tribuni Harris_

_We've enlisted work from an anonymous benefactor. You are assigned lead Century 20 of Cohort 9 of the 3__rd__ Legion on a mission on the Citadel. You are to draw the mercenary known as Splicer out of his home by any means necessary. Our employer wishes no one in his apartment. After he is gone. Keep him busy for at least 10 minutes, by any means necessary._

_Once completed, report to your Dominus._

_Legion sumus!_

_Legatus diu vivere!_

_Signed,_

_Dux Essin_

Why did they want me out of my apartment? Who wanted me out of the apartment? As long as nobody's in the apartment then that's not so bad I guess. Some of this is in Latin. So much for being a dead language. I don't know any Latin, maybe SNAKE can translate. "SNAKE: Translate this text."

"_Translating. Translated to nearest relevant term."_

A new version of the message appears. It reads.

_Captain Harris_

_We've enlisted work from an anonymous benefactor. You are assigned Squad 20 of Platoon 9 of the 3__rd__ Army on a mission on the Citadel. You are to draw the mercenary known as Splicer out of his home by any means necessary. Our employer wishes no one in his apartment. After he is gone. Keep him busy for at least 10 minutes, by any means necessary._

_Once completed, report to your Master._

_We are Legion!_

_Long live the Ambassador!_

_Signed,_

_General Essin_

We are Legion. That is such an overused phrase. But based on how this is written, I'm guessing that they mean they are Legion literally. They are the Legion in other words. I'll ask those whimsical krogan.

"What's it say?" Zero asks looking at the omni-tool.

I shrug tossing the omni-tool on the corpse and retrieving my knife from his throat. I wipe it off on my leg and stick it back in the sheath on my shoulder. "I don't know yet. I caught a pair of krogan out in the garage. Let's ask them a few questions."

I lead Zero and Jada out into the garage where the two krogan continue to bicker.

"My fault! I say it's Keslank's fault!" Ganx yells. I assume Keslank is their brother.

"Sure. Yeah! Keslank's fault! Well… now he's dead." Fenrix responds from the ground.

"Serves him right." Ganx responds. Wow they got over his death fast.

I approach Ganx and he smirks when he spots me. "Hey Fenrix, the human is back."

Fenrix tries to look over his shoulder but fails. "I can't see him. What's he doing? Is he going to kill us?"

"I don't think so he's just… standing there… Staring at me… with those weird bulgy eyes humans have… It's creepy." Ganx says narrowing his eyes at me.

Bulgy? I shake my head. "Anyways… What is the Legion?"

Ganx smirks. "It's a relatively new mercenary group. It's the fastest growing one in the galaxy. The ironic thing is that before the Battle of the Suns, the Blue Suns were the only major PMC in Citadel Space. But since their activities have been illegalized, the biggest one left was the Legion. What's ironic is that the Legion was going to go bankrupt before the Battle. If it wasn't for that we wouldn't be around anymore."

Wow… My presence in this universe has had a much larger effect than I thought. Everything from Barla Von's death to the Battle of the Suns and now to the reorganization of the Legion, whatever that is, was all because of my stupid actions. I should stop doing stuff. "So what else can you tell me about the Legion?"

Ganx is about to speak but Fenrix starts talking instead. "The Legion is currently the largest mercenary band in the galaxy, behind only the Blood Pack. The Legion is split into 5 Legions, each with about 5000 troops. Each Legion is separated into 10 Cohorts with 500 troops and each Cohort has 20 Centuries with 25 Centurions in each Century.

"The Legion accepts any and all species, but they must show skill and ability in battle. The Legion has a unique authority system. It is led by the Legate, a former lieutenant commander in the Alliance navy. He's mysterious and not many people know his real name, ourselves included. And for each Legion, there is a Dux or commander. The hand selected members of the Tribune, known as the Tribuni, are officers or captains. Each Cohort has 20 Tribuni and they are cycled in between Centuries whenever we get an assignment. Cohorts are monitored by Masters or Dominus and they choose which of the Tribune are appropriate for a mission. The Domini report to the Dux and the Dux report to the Legatus. I don't get all the terms personally, they all seem strange."

"I wanted to say all that!" Ganx roars angrily.

Fenrix chuckles. "And what? I don't get to say anything?"

"Both of you shut up!" Jada yells sounding incredibly annoyed. "Christ you two are annoying… Besides all that just flew over our heads anyways. The Legion is too confusing."

I laugh and Ganx growls. "That's cause you've got chum for brains."

Jada moves to hit him but Zero grabs her shoulder.

"Let's go." I say chuckling.

We start leaving but Fenrix calls out to us. "Hey! What about us? You're just going to leave us here?"

I look over my shoulder as we walk. "Yeah! The ice will wear off before the cops get here!"

"Cops?" Ganx groans. "See what you got us into you idiot?"

"What Keslank got us into, remember?" Fenrix corrects.

"Right…"

Jada groans covering the sides of her helmet with her hands. "Dear God, they're driving me nuts! Thank goodness we're leaving!"

"Huh?" I mumble as I type into my omni-tool:

_Fenrix and Ganx:_

_Twin Krogan_

_I killed their brother_

_Centurions in the Legion_

_Really fucking annoying_

I like to keep records of these things. People I've made angry or whatever. OH! I almost forgot one important one.

I add another name to the list:

_Miranda Lawson_

_I'll see you in ME2._

We walk together back towards my apartment building through the crowds of cheering people with C-Sec vehicles flying overhead.

Wow they have a slow response time. It's been… wow only 7 minutes? Hang on! That means that whoever was in my apartment might still be there!

"Guys come on! We need to get to my apartment now!" I say starting to sprint toward my apartment building.

"What why?" Zero asks concerned sprinting after me, wincing as his wound pains him.

"The whole attack was to get me out of my apartment for 10 minutes! It's been only 7 since I left! So they might still be there!" I yell just as we reach the front door to my apartment building.

I start running up the stairs very quickly, leaving Jada and Zero behind.

I reach my floor and sprint to my room which is slightly ajar.

I draw my assault rifle and attach the Tactical Dart attachment.

I nudge the door open and find everything mostly as it was.

A few things are moved but they're mostly unchanged. I activate my Sound Dampeners and creep into the room. Empty.

I walk down the hall and into my bedroom keeping my assault rifle raised. Oh fuck no!

Haephis Dalarian, my landlord, is using Alex as a human shield, with a pistol pressed up against her head. Alex's eyes widen at the sight of me she sniffs and tries to say something but Dalarian presses his forearm tighter against her neck, which causes me to tighten my grip on my gun.

Tears stream down Alex's face and she's clearly in shock as she's hyperventilating. She must've come in not moments ago and Dalarian took her hostage. Son of a bitch.

I glance over my shoulder and see my hidden weapons locker is open and my pistol is missing.

I refocus on Dalarian. "What the hell are you doing?" I snarl at him, my finger slipping to the trigger of my rifle.

"Ah! I wouldn't do that." Dalarian says pressing the pistol against Alex's head harder.

I can't use Telekinesis to pull the pistol away, the orientation of it could make it go off and I'm not willing to risk that. Dalarian is a trained fighter, one wrong move and he could shoot.

"Why?" I say simply. I need to stall him at least until Jada and Zero get here to back me up.

"Why?" Dalarian repeats furiously. "Because nobody said a word about me! I spent thousands of credits, fortifying this place and nobody thought to thank me? Bullshit! Fucking bullshit!"

He roars at me with such hate. He's so angry his hand is shaking.

"That's all this is?" I ask in mock surprise. "Because people didn't thank you?"

I hear Zero and Jada enter my apartment behind me.

I lower my assault rifle and place it on the desk next to me. My mask flips off my face and I look Alex in the eyes trying to reassure her. "Thank you, Mr. Dalarian. If it wasn't for you: I'd be dead."

"That's fucking right you would!" He yells angrily his hand shaking more.

"You deserve better than this." I say taking a careful step forward. "You deserve much more recognition… In fact." I take my Palladium Star off my desk. I notice the case is cracked. I hold it out to him. "You deserve this more than I do. You're a hero."

His eyes widen. "You… You'd… You'd give me that?"

I nod. "Yeah. Absolutely. I hardly did anything, it was all you. You saved over a hundred lives alone."

He nods slowly. "Yeah… Yeah I did…"

He lowers his pistol slightly and I charge at him.

I grab both his hands and pull them away from Alex. She wastes no time in hurrying out of his grasp and out the room.

We struggle, Dalarian overpowering me slightly. I underestimated his strength thoroughly. He's damn strong. Dalarian suddenly glows bright with a biotic aura and I feel my body lock up. And he's a biotic… I can't believe I didn't know that. I guess I just assumed since turian biotics are rare.

I fall to the ground, immobilized by Stasis. Dalarian runs toward the door but Zero stands in his way. I am forced to watch with my peripherals as Zero battles Dalarian with biotic attacks.

Zero pushes Dalarian out of my field of vision but I can distinctly hear continued fighting.

The pressure on my body from the Stasis seems to grow quickly over time, making me feel uncomfortable and tense. Suddenly it completely vanishes and I go limp not expecting the sudden change.

I leap to my feet and see Zero on top of Dalarian with his fist over his head preparing to punch. Dalarian counters by throwing both his hands into Zero's gut, sending him flying into the ceiling, leaving a dent.

I leap over my bed and tackle Dalarian just as he stands.

Dalarian snarls and grabs my face with his talon, trying to push me off of him. His hand worms into my helmet and he starts squeezing tightly and I feel like my head is going to pop.

Suddenly, I remember something Tyrannax said about my helmet.

I close my mask suddenly causing his fingers to be severed by my mask. He screams in pain and pulls his hand away.

I ignore the blood filling my helmet and the dismembered fingers scraping against my face and grab his head with both my hands.

I activate Incinerate and blast him with flame from both my hands. I want to cause him pain, agony. The bastard deserves nothing less.

After mere seconds, Dalarian stops writhing, his face a melted and burned mass of flesh and bone.

I stand and open my mask letting the contents fall out onto his corpse.

I help Zero to his feet and support him as we walk out into the main room of my apartment.

Jada points her shotgun at us as she sees us but lowers it once we're recognized.

Alex runs to me from the opposite end of the room. I release Zero and catch her.

She buries her face in my neck and cries. Like really cries. The kind that leaves you hyperventilating and weak in the knees.

"It's okay." I say pressing her head against my neck gently. "As long as I live no one will hurt you. I won't let anything happen to you."

She pulls back and looks me in the eyes.

I smile. "I promise."

**A/N: I really apologize for being so late with this. I was doing stuff all day Monday, and when I got home at like 4 the next day, I had like half an hour before I was out the door again, and I didn't get home until super late. Which was when I passed out. So, sorry for this being late.**

**Uh, not much else to say except that I won't do the synopsis thing I do every 10 chapters until next chapter or the one after that because this one is already too long.**

**Also I wanted to expand my story's horizons a little. So if you have an idea on how to make my story a little more popular, send me a PM and we can talk.**

**I won't keep you. Leave a review about the chapter if you want, and remember I (try) to post a new chapter every Tuesday, so I'll see you then**


	31. Chapter 31 Fierce Deity

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: Crap! Sorry guys, forgot to post again! Got mixed up in SWTOR, so you know. Anyways, I won't keep you... oh and that 10 chapter synopsis won't come until the next chapter. Again due to Laziness. It's a sickness really. Well, here you are, chapter 31.**

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><p>"<strong>Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!"<strong>

**~Anne Frank~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 31: Fierce Deity<strong>

**4:41 PM May 23, 2182**

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><p>From my hiding spot I see Pallin approach the alley way from the crime scene.<p>

He walks into it a little and looks down the dark alley towards the other end.

"Splicer?" He calls out.

A convenient sound from behind him causes him to whirl around to look toward the crime scene. "Splicer, are you there?"

I open the lid of the large crate I'm hiding in and stand, resting my arms on its edge. "Pallin."

He jumps and yelps and spins around to face me. He scowls at me. "What the hell are you doing in there?"

"Hiding." I respond simply checking my nails casually.

Pallin looks at me confused. "Why?"

"Two reasons." I say holding up two fingers. "One: I've been doing a lot of work recently and people are all up in my face all the time, so the less people see me around the better. Two: I thought it'd be funny to mess with you."

He snarls.

"Now I see that wasn't a good idea." I mumble awkwardly. "Sorry Pallin."

He shakes his head. "Whatever. How'd the sting go? Did you see the robber?"

I smile under my helmet. "I did you one better."

I pull out a datapad showing a detailed map of the Kithoi Ward and hand it to him.

He frowns. "What's this?"

"I planted a tracker on him." I respond opening my omni-tool and activating the tracker. A bright pinging dot appears on the digital map. "That datapad will lead you to him."

He doesn't smile but his eyes brighten slightly. "Excellent. This store will be the last this bastard holds up. Nice work."

I nod. "I also got a picture of him too."

I turn on Detective Mode. "SNAKE: Cycle Detective photos."

My vision turns into a large photo album. "SNAKE: Select number 41."

A picture of Alex comes up and I smile. "SNAKE: Select number 49"

A picture of the salarian robber appears. "SNAKE: Download picture 49, 50, and 51 to Pallin's datapad."

"_Downloading. Downloaded."_

Pallin stares at the datapad. "Good work, Splicer. Now what is it you said you wanted instead of credits?"

I frown. "I want to know what you guys found in my apartment after I was attacked by Dalarian and how the Legion was involved."

Pallin frowns and hesitates. "I would Splicer, but that information is confidential."

"Pallin!" I yell at him slamming my fist on the edge of the crate. "My girlfriend was almost killed! I need to know who is involved so I know who to protect her from!"

Pallin sighs. "Alright, Splicer. But you need to keep this… How do you humans say? Under your hair?"

"Under your hat." I correct.

He nods. "Right well, here's what we discovered…" Pallin steps closer and starts to whisper. "After reviewing some security tapes and taking a few scans of your apartment, we discovered a few things out of the ordinary. One is that there was a listening device planted in your apartment on the underside of your coffee table. We have removed it and are analyzing it, but if we had to guess the person you said came into your home for no apparent reason was actually an operative with the Legion and he planted it…"

Of course! He looked too level-headed to be just some weirdo! "What else was out of the ordinary?"

"Well if we had to guess the Legion was hired by Haephis Dalarian because immediately after you left the building, Dalarian went into your apartment. It was almost like he knew when you'd leave. Do you know what he was looking for?" Pallin asks eyeing me suspiciously.

"I… I really don't know." I say telling the truth. He opened my secret weapons locker. I do keep my ADAM and EVE in there so maybe he wanted that. Or maybe he wanted to kill me.

Pallin frowns, he eyes me for another second before shaking his head in defeat and sighing. "Then we have no idea what he was after. He has no apparent motive. Sorry we don't have more for you, Splicer. And don't worry; we know you killed him out of self-defense. Detecti- Mr. Sageaus and Ms. Silva can attest to that. Though we wish you hadn't killed him so we could question him."

I sigh. "Believe me. I would too. And honestly? I could have spared him but he held a gun to my girlfriend's head!"

Pallin frowns. "You may want to keep that last detail to yourself and I'll pretend that I didn't hear that."

I clear my throat awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. Thanks Pallin."

"Splicer. Say hello to Mr. Sageaus for me." Pallin nods turning and walking back to the crime scene.

I hop out of the crate and jog down the alley away from the crime scene.

"_Splicer, my job is done. Payment has been transferred to our accounts. 15,000 like usual."_ I hear Zero say over my comm suddenly.

I nod even though no one can hear me. "Nice work, Zero. No trouble I assume?"

"_Krogan was a little bit of a pain but he went down after I grabbed his head plate. Good tip, by the way. I never thought a krogan could panic like that."_ Zero says chuckling.

Don't thank me, Zero. Thank Zaeed Massani and his wonderful knife under the head plate tip. "Thanks Zero. Hey how's Nata?"

"_Good. She's at home right now with Desmond… Speaking of which, you haven't met him yet have you?"_ He asks.

I frown. "No why?"

"_Well since you seem to be employing people and you have an overload of jobs people have been giving you, why don't you employ more team members?" _He suggests.

"Eh… That would mean I'd have to raise my rate just to give everyone an equal share… But why Desmond? Didn't you say he worked for Binary Helix? Aren't they like a… box manufacturer or something?"

There's a relatively long pause. _"… No… Not even close. They're a genetic engineering and biotechnology research company…"_

"Whatever!" I shout throwing my hands up causing a few people to look at me. "What could he offer me?"

I hear him chuckle. "You don't know what he does there do you?"

I roll my eyes. "Would you cut the shtick and just tell me what your point is?"

"_Wow you're short today."_ He says… I can almost see him smiling from here. _"Desmond is a biotech scientist and voluntary test subject for a large number of implants. He's basically a cyborg now."_

I blink. Is he serious? I mean come on! I got an experimental steroid enhanced She-Hulk, a mono-mandible biotic turian, an often unavailable turian porn star, and now a cyborg… I could write a book. Though… No I'm not a very good writer. I can hardly keep my thoughts in my head long enough to get them on paper.

"A cyborg? So… he's like got robot arms and cybernetic eyes?" I mumble absently.

"_No."_ He says humor in his voice_. "Nothing like that. Just come by my place and see. You're on Kithoi right?"_

I nod… Why do I keep doing that I must look like a psychopath? "Uh… Yeah. I'll stop by and introduce myself."

"_Alright. I'm still on the Presidium, I'll see you there."_ Zero closes the comm.

I want to meet this cyborg. I start walking toward Zero's apartment, conveniently just a few blocks away. As I walk people back out of my way, skirting around me like I'm a leper. Sure they love taking pictures with me without my armor on, but when I got the helmet on I'm too scary.

I unclasp the clasps for my helmet and remove it with a sigh. It's hot in there anyway. I cradle it under my arm and finger comb my hair.

Instantly there's a change. People start smiling at me. Waving and saying hello or you got a quad. I'm still not sure about how I feel about how much people like me. Recently I've gotten a lot of work offers from political representatives.

I guess they see me as a tool to get the people on their side. For some reason average citizens like me. But I don't like the people. They're all selfish and cruel. Politicians especially.

I enter Zero's apartment and go up to his apartment on the 8th floor. I knock on the door and Nata answers it.

"Jackson? What a pleasant surprise, what are you doing here?" Nata asks staring at me quizzically. "You look depressed. Is everything alright?"

I frown. "No, I'm just pretty tired. I came to speak with Desmond."

Her eyes widen in surprise slightly. "Oh, sure. Desmond!"

She drags me into the apartment and sits me on a couch. I like Zero's place. Very neat. Everything has a place and nothing is out of place. Modest furniture and warm atmosphere despite the metal walls.

It's spacious yet small. It's one of those places where if you tried to rearrange the furniture, you couldn't because everything fits right where it is.

I hear footsteps approaching and I look up at Desmond. No way.

The guy from my apartment! The handsome yet strange one! He's Desmond!

Desmond stares at me wide eyed. "Oh… shit."

I leap to my feet and rush forward, grabbing his neck. "Who are you?"

"Hey, calm down." He says holding up his hands. I frown at his hands which are black and synthetic looking. I look down at him. His arms are cybernetic, and they don't look like the cheap stuff either. They're black, proportionally shaped and muscular looking. His hands and arms look extremely sophisticated, like he could move them with complete ease and full range of motion; No clumsiness like some have with prosthetics. They're very realistic, almost as if his arms just have a black sleeve over them. However I can see that the simulated arm can detach in pieces in some places. At this close proximity, I can see his face has small circles stamped into his flesh near his jaw line and temples. And his eyes… That's creepy. They're mechanical, and there's actually writing on the irises. His torso looks like it was cut evenly into pieces then put back together. There're seams on his torso, small plug looking things around his collarbone and I can see his legs are synthetic and matching his arms.

I lift him off his feet and spin him into a wall without taking my hands off his neck, which is so hard it feels like it's made of metal. "I asked you a question!"

His expression of "Oh crap" turns to one of interest and fascination. "You're interesting. I can't believe I didn't put two and two together. Zero never told me who he was working for, just a friend. He really should talk about himself more."

Nata runs into the room. "What the hell, Jackson? Put him down!"

I glare at her and nod my head at the front door. "Leave! Now!"

She looks reluctantly at Desmond. He smiles at her reassuringly and she leaves. I snarl in anger. "How dare you!"

I pull him back slightly and slam him into the wall again. "Because of you my girlfriend was almost killed! Now you're infiltrating my life? Who are you?"

I slam him into the wall again. His expression of interest turns to one of confusion. "Wait. Your girlfriend? Nearly killed? What happened?"

I spin around and hurl him onto the couch causing it to slide against the floor. "Dalarian! He took Alex hostage and held a gun to her head! Why?"

Desmond looks at me horrified, not because of my fury but because of the surprising news. "Listen, I didn't anticipate that. I was just doing my job. Dalarian hired us to get you out of the apartment and distract you and your team for at least 10 minutes. I couldn't have anticipated that your girlfriend would go there. I apologize."

I scowl at him. "So you admit it: you're not who you say you are?"

He sighs and looks reluctantly at the open door. "I'm the- I'm a Legion operative. I handle intel and reconnaissance. That's all. My name is Desmond, and I work at Binary Helix as a Biotechnical Scientist. I just do work for the Legion when I they need intel on something here on the Citadel."

I narrow my eyes. "I wish I could believe you."

His expression of confusion quickly brightens to one of interest again. "You're much smarter than you look. No offense intended. It was a compliment. I must say you're nothing like I've heard."

I scowl again. There's something he's hiding. I can tell. Something very, very important.

I activate Electro Bolt and raise my palm, electricity arching between my fingers at him. "Who. Are. You?"

His eyes brighten further and his fascinated smile widens as well. "The rumors are true then. You truly are something. I look forward to our future together."

I frown. "What do you mean?"

A manic look appears in his eyes. "Credimus Deum se perdidisse." He smiles. "Eum iam inveni hic!"

He suddenly leaps from the couch, spinning multiple times through the air, finishing with a kick to my exposed face.

His foot feels like a baseball bat and the kick has enough force to knock me off my feet and to the ground. I crack my jaw and quickly get back to my feet, but he's already gone.

Fuck… Who is he?

Zero rushes into the room with Nata trailing behind him. "What's going on? Nata said you were attacking Desmond! Where is he?"

I sigh. "He ran off just a few seconds ago. He's not who you think he is, Zero."

"Excuse me?" He says angering. "I place my trust intelligently! If you're implying—"

"He's Legion!" I shout. "He was in my apartment! He planted a bug in there and he is partly to blame for nearly getting Alex killed!"

Zero's face falls. "W-What?"

I sigh. "I told you about the guy who came into my apartment? It was him. He said he's a Legion intel operative but I'm positive he was lying. He knows more than he's letting on."

Zero falls onto the couch looking blankly at a wall.

Nata kneels next to him and places her hands on his arm. "Zero? Are you alright?"

He shakes his head. "No… No, I'm not."

Zero continues to stare for a short while before slowly removing his helmet and placing it next to him. He draws his handgun and cradles it in his hands, staring at it intensely.

"Zero, what's wrong?" Nata asks sounding frightened.

I frown with concern. What's wrong with him? He looks appalled by something.

Nata stands angrily and storms out of the apartment.

I walk over and sit in front of him on his coffee table. "Zero. What's eating you man?"

He looks up at me. He sighs. "Nothing. I'm fine."

I frown. "Zero. Earlier when I was questioning Desmond he said that he didn't know who you were partnered with. Are you really such a closed mouth person? I don't know anything about you Zero. How can I trust you if you don't talk about yourself a little?"

"I don't like talking about myself." He mumbles.

I need to be persistent otherwise I won't get a thing out of him. "Why?"

He looks up at me angrily. "Know your history? The Hiroshima bombings in your 20th century. Do you like talking about mass murder? Do you like talking about death?"

I frown. "What are you playing at?"

Zero jumps to his feet and walks around the couch. "I'm not playing at anything! I just… I don't like talking about my past. It's… I have a new life now. I want to live it. Not live in the past."

I can relate to that… "I understand, Zero. Don't tell me about it, then. Certain things from my past don't really appeal to me either. I completely understand. Just… Don't push people away because you think they can't understand you. I did that and people got mad at me. I have to go. I need to make sure Alex is alright. Are… Are you going to be alright?"

He nods. "I can take care of myself… If… If you see Nata out there… tell her to come back. I need to… talk to her."

I smile. "Alright."

I grab my helmet and pull it on and walk out. I find Nata fuming in the hallway.

"Jackson! What the hell is going on! This is like… TV drama! It's so stupid!" Nata shouts angrily.

I sigh. "Calm down Nata. Zero wants to talk to you. I'll see you later."

She sighs and walks past me back to the apartment.

I exit the building and walk over to the cab terminal across the street. I enter my destination, my apartment building, and pay for it.

As I'm about to enter a person literally passes through me.

I shiver and look after the Genetic Ghost of the unfamiliar alien race.

It joins a large crowd of Ghosts walking down the street. They all vanish suddenly and my head throbs.

Damn… haven't seen one of those in a while. Usually they're pretty violent. Usually people die in them. Oh well. The less death I see the better, I suppose.

I enter the cab and it starts flying toward Zakera Ward.

The cab jolts to a stop waking me from my sleep. Wow I'm tired. I think I'll take a nap later.

I exit the cab and walk out the hanger of my apartment building and take the stairs to get to my apartment.

As I walk down the hall I notice somebody standing outside my apartment door looking anxious. He's a turian, very tall, even for his species.

I walk up to him. "Who are you?"

He sighs in relief at the sight of me. "Ah! Splicer! I'm glad you're finally here. We haven't had the pleasure of meeting each other. I'm Tullvin Dalarian. I've inherited this building after the death of my father."

Uh oh… He probably wants revenge or something. "Uh… Sorry about that by the way."

He shrugs. "Barely knew the bastard. I was his only family so by regulation of the Hierarchy the building goes to me."

I sigh in relief. Damn I was afraid that might get ugly. "Well then… What can I do for you?"

"This isn't easy for me to say, but I need your help." Tullvin says bluntly.

I sigh. "With what?"

He gulps and starts pacing nervously. He scratches at his fringe and his mandibles flare back and forth repeatedly. "Uh… This isn't easy to explain…"

I frown. "Whatever it is, Tullvin, I'll see what I can do to help."

He sighs and sounds out of breath. "Ok… uh… I need your help with uh… I like this girl."

Whoa… That was unexpected. "And?"

"Well I don't know how to talk to her!" Tullvin cries in agony. "I saw you with your girlfriend yesterday and she's very beautiful so…" He pauses as he notices my eyes narrow. "No, that's not what I meant! I meant that since you have such a beautiful woman… not like I'm saying you own her or anything, just that… uh…"

I sigh. "Chill, Tullvin. Just tell me exactly what you need help with."

Tullvin closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Okay… I like a girl. I need your help to find out what she likes, so that I know what I can talk to her about. Can you help me? I'll pay you."

I roll my eyes. "I won't charge for this. Who am I to stand in between two young lovers? Just don't go spreading that information around. I'm not exactly keen on doing this."

His eyes brighten. "You'll help? Great! Thank you!"

"What's the girl's name?" I ask absently.

"She's an asari and I think I've seen her here before. She works for the Consort." Oh God. "Her name's Nelyna I think."

I start chuckling then it grows to side splitting laughter. Tullvin stares at me confused.

I stop laughing. "Right, uh… This shouldn't be too difficult I suppose. I'm actually friends with her."

Tullvin's eyes brighten. "Really? So you're the one she comes to see."

I nod. "Yeah. Anyways, I'm going to tell you a little about her, and the rest is up to you."

He nods enthusiastically. "Ok!"

I shake my head. This is strange. "Okay… well… She's still a Maiden so I don't think she may be looking for a relationship, though she said she was getting close to her Matron stage so I can't say for sure. Give it a shot I guess. Um… She's very kind, friendly and well-mannered and is attracted to people who are likewise. Nelyna is the kind of girl who demands someone who can demand respect, so… and I mean this in the nicest way possible: Grow a pair. She likes a guy who can demand respect, but she loves a guy who can gain respect without trying. Though for you I suggest trying. Uh… She isn't impressed by money, more by romance, so try harder to do something romantic."

"Any suggestions?" Tullvin ask pausing from the notes he's taking on his omni-tool.

Romanticism suggestions? I ponder for a second. "Normally I'd say to follow your heart. Romance is unique to a person. But… If you need my way of romance here's what I do. Instead of taking her to a restaurant or a movie on the first date, make a picnic in a romantic setting, or do something bizarre and unexpected."

"Like what?" Tullvin asks interested.

I sigh. "Well… Once when I was a teen I asked this girl out on a date and I told her to meet me at a hiking trail that I frequented as a place to run and walk my dog. She met me there, as you can imagine she was confused. But that was the key. See there was this spot on the top of a hill that looked out over the ocean and at sunset it was absolutely gorgeous. Well I knew she liked outdoor settings so I took her along with me and my dog and we ran all the way up the hill to the top. By then she was kind of mad. However I managed to time it perfectly and when we got to the top…? Let's just say we dated for another year and a half."

He smiles and nods interested. "Wow that's all really helpful, thanks."

I smile. "Don't mention it. If you want I could call her to ask her to come by and you could give it a shot."

His eyes widen. "Uh… Y-yeah sure."

I open my omni-tool and as I roll through my contacts I talk to Tullvin. "Alright, now a key thing to remember is to stay cool. This part is crucial. If she agrees to go on a date with you, impressing her further becomes moot. What is important is keeping her impressed and interested and keeping her with you."

He nods. "Okay."

"_Splicer?"_ Nelyna answers after a second. _"What's up?"_

"Hey Nelyna." I say sounding friendly. "I'm making dinner for Alex and we were wondering if you'd like to come by and join us."

"_Um… Is Vaga going to be there?"_ She asks.

I frown. "No why?"

"_Then I'd love to come! I'll be by in… 10 minutes."_ She says happily.

"I'll see you then!" I respond.

I cut the call and look at Tullvin who looks more nervous than ever. "You can do this. Just remember to breathe every once in a while. And remember that hearing a 'no' isn't the end of the world. There's always other fish in the sea and all that bull crap…" I pause and eye him suspiciously. "Have you ever… done this before?"

He shakes his head.

Wow… "Okay… well hearing a 'no' isn't as heartbreaking as you might think. And… if she says no… don't get mad at me."

He nods. "Don't worry, if she rejects me, it'll be totally my fault. Which it probably will be…"

"Good luck." I say patting him on the shoulder and walking past him into my apartment. I shut the door with a sigh. Well that was strange and oddly exhausting.

I spot Alex on the couch. She looks over her shoulder at me and smiles. "Hey! You're home! Oh… you look sad, tired, angry or all of the above."

I chuckle weakly and trudge into the kitchen to start preparing dinner. "All of the above."

"What's the matter?" She asks walking up to the counter and leaning against it.

I sigh. "Just… shit happened today. Random weird shit. I spoke to Pallin and he said they didn't have anything about the guys who attacked the apartment building the other day or why Dalarian was here. I went to Zero's place to meet his roommate, Desmond. Well as it turns out Desmond was that guy who showed up in here for seemingly no reason. He works for the Legion as a cyborg intel agent. Zero seemed pretty distraught over the news. See he thought Desmond was just a guy who worked at Binary Helix and was only your average cyborg."

"I'm sorry but I have to ask: Cyborg?" Alex asks in confusion. "Desmond is a cyborg. Like… he's a brain in a robot or something?"

I laugh. "Nah, I thought the same thing. No he's more like an augmented person. A real life Adam Jenson if you will."

She frowns. "Who's Adam Jenson?"

I shrug. "No one." Now that I think about it, Desmond's cybernetics look a lot like Adam Jensen's. I wonder if they do the same stuff? "I got a pretty close look at him though. He's got cybernetic arms, legs and eyes i think and he's got these weird circles stamped to his face."

Alex's eyes widen in realization. "That sounds familiar! Do his eyes glow a little?"

I stop adding various spices to the food and look at her in shock. "Yeah, how did you know?"

"There's a guy at work who's got implants like those! But just the eyes and circle thingies from what I've seen. He was at the New Year's party last year, we got a little too friendly… forget what I just said. Anyways I've got a picture of him on my omni-tool. I can zoom in and show you the implants. If they're the same ones maybe we can call him or something and see if he can give us a lead on who Desmond really is."

I nod and walk up to the counter. She opens her omni-tool and starts moving through pictures, looks like she took a lot during the Battle of the Suns. She was probably bored. Finally she hits a series of pictures that look like they took place at a party.

"Here we go." She opens a picture of herself cheek to cheek with a work associate… Oh… Fuck… no…

"Just a sec…" she mumbles as she zooms very close to his cheek.

I wave my arms in panic. "Go back! Go back to his whole face!"

She frowns and zooms back out to his face. FUCK! I slam my fists onto the counter causing it to dent slightly. No fucking way! "God Dammit! Son of a bitch!"

Alex looks from me to the picture multiple times in fear and confusion. "What? What's wrong?"

I point a furious finger at the picture. "That's Desmond!"

She frowns. "No it isn't! That's Denzel! He's an analyst like me."

"No he isn't!" I roar in fury. "He's the galaxy's greatest liar, fraud, and imposter!"

She looks at the picture in confusion. "So you're saying… that he's a C-Sec analyst, a scientist for Binary Helix, a Legion intel agent, a cyborg, and the guy who broke into your apartment?"

I sigh. "I know it sounds absurd… Oh! I can prove it was him! Cloves!"

"_Yes sir?"_

"Show Living Room video feed from May 14 at around 9 o'clock."

"_Video feed is corrupted, would you like me to play it?"_

I nod. "Yes."

"You have video cameras in here?" Alex asks walking over to the TV with me.

I frown at her. "That's not important right now!"

The TV suddenly changes to a small video. It shows me face palming at the stranger's stupid comebacks. His back is to the camera so we can't see his face yet.

I approach him in the video and punch him in the stomach. I grab the back of his shirt and drag him toward the door. He momentarily rotates himself to face the camera.

"Stop! Cloves roll it back slightly."

It goes back to the part where he's facing the camera. "Zoom in on the man's face."

It zooms on mine. I face palm. Damn VIs. "No the other man's."

It moves down to his. Alex gasps. "No way!"

I nod. "See? He's a freaking head case!"

Alex takes a seat on a stool next to the counter. "Geez… That's so weird. He seemed like such a nice guy. I saw him today for goodness sakes!"

I frown. "I need to talk to him. I'll come down to the station with you tomorrow."

Alex looks at me concerned. "You aren't going to shoot anyone are you?"

I sigh. "No… No I won't. But I'm bringing my gun just to be safe."

"That's fair." She says with a sigh.

This is so bizarre.

There's suddenly a series of rapid knocks on the door.

"Cloves open the door." I say.

The door opens and Nelyna rushes in, followed by shouts from Tullvin. "Nelyna I can change!"

Nelyna shuts the door and hurries over to the counter and takes a seat next to Alex with a sigh.

Alex leans over and stares at the door. "What was that?"

Nelyna sighs. "The building's new owner asked me out on a date, but I turned him down… He's persistent, I'll give him that."

I snicker and continue cooking. I feel bad for the guy, but I can't say I didn't see this coming on some level. Apparently much of my advice flew over his head. Staying cool among them.

Nelyna gasps. "Oh Goddess, did you have anything to do with that?"

I look over my shoulder at her with a wry smile. "… Maybe."

She throws a book at me. It hits my back. It hurts.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright, hope you liked the chapter. What do you think of "Desmond?" Who do you think he really is? Why do you think he's tied in with all these different aspects of the story? Find out in the next chapter, which will be posted, as always (Or at least sometimes), next Tuesday (Hopefully I'll remember to post on time.)**

**Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again.**

**Until next time,**

**Mockingbird79**


	32. Chapter 32 Liars and Cheats

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>A liar is full of oaths."<strong>

**~Pierre Corneille~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 32: Liars and Cheats<strong>

**9:19 AM May 24, 2182**

* * *

><p>Alright, time to get some answers.<p>

I walk hand in hand with Alex up the steps of the Presidium C-Sec Station toward the front door.

Not two months ago I was here fighting for my life. They've managed to fix it pretty quickly. Back to the eye of the storm I suppose.

Now there's a new storm brewing.

We enter the building and up to the security check.

We place our possessions through the scanner and are scanned by the security officers.

"They're clean." A turian officer says.

"Go on through." Another one says gesturing us through.

I retrieve my stuff, pistol included, and walk toward Alex's department. Surprising that they'd let me keep my pistol, especially so soon after the attack by the Blue Suns. I mean, after the 9-11 attack airport security became ridiculous.

I lean over to Alex as we walk. "Hey, why did they let me keep my pistol?"

She smiles. "Because they added a new system to the building that makes any guns without a special chip fail when you try to shoot them. All the guns that C-Sec uses have the chips in them."

I glance at my gun in its holster. "You knew that and you let me bring my gun anyways."

She nods patting me on the arm. "I knew it would comfort you."

I'm about to speak but stop myself. She has a good point. And if worse comes to worse with Desmond or Denzel or whatever his name is then I can just use my pistol as a bludgeon.

As we walk toward Alex's department, we enter the super long hallway that was almost my coffin a few weeks ago. They managed to repair it fairly quickly considering the damage caused. The hall is a lot busier than it was before, with many people walking up and down including… "Pallin!"

Pallin glances at us as he walks. "Splicer. What are you doing here?"

"I'm just visiting a friend." I say with a smirk.

He nods. "Well, it's nice to see you, as always. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have business I must attend to with the Council."

I nod. "Have a nice day, Pallin."

He leaves and Alex and I start walking again.

Alex smirks. "Isn't he a ray of sunshine?"

I smile. "Leave Pallin alone, Alex. He just likes doing his job."

Alex shrugs. "Don't worry about me messing with him. He is my boss after all."

I laugh. Hm… That reminds me of something… Doesn't Pallin die later on? I can't remember. I should consult my iPod on it later. Oh well. I have more pressing things to worry about now.

We enter Alex's department, the same room where I first met her. She points over to the other end of the room. "His station is over there. Good luck, and don't make a scene. I need to get to work."

I nod and she walks over to her desk.

I take a deep breath and walk over to the cubicle Alex indicated.

My breath catches in my throat at the sight of him. Well what do you know. Here he is.

Instead of a C-Sec uniform he's wearing a suit and tie, to obscure his cybernetics no doubt.

I walk up to his desk and he takes a second to notice my presence. Without looking up from his datapad he says, "I'll be with you in a moment."

I clear my throat loudly and melodramatically.

He looks up at me. "Oh hell…"

I smile. "Hello… Denzel."

He places his datapad on his desk with a sigh. "Alright… You found me… Again. What is it this time? You going to beat me up?"

I shake my head and take a seat in the chair across his desk. "No. I just want some answers."

He leans back in his chair. "Alright. Ask your questions. I'll be perfectly honest with you."

How sweet. "Why?"

He shrugs. "You're not a bad guy. I like you, you're… interesting. You've become somewhat of a fascination to me. We're alike, you and I. And the more we trust each other, the more amicable we can be in our future confrontations."

That's a little creepy but whatever. "Ready to answer a few questions?"

He nods. "Yes. I will warn you though: that there are some things I can't answer here. You understand?"

I look around the room. "Why?"

He sighs. "Wouldn't this be a conversation better held in private?"

I laugh. "Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you? You think I'm going to talk to you in a room by ourselves? Not likely. I don't want you attacking me like last time."

He rolls his eyes. "Sorry about that by the way. Sometimes my sense of self-preservation outranks my sensibility."

I lean against his desk, keeping one hand on my pistol. I know it won't work but I need to be ready to whip him across the face with it. "First of all, what's your real name?"

"I can't answer that." He says with a shake of his head. "Not here."

I sigh. "Okay… You work for the Legion right?"

He takes a second to answer, nodding slowly. "Yes… In a manner of speaking."

I frown. "What the hell does that mean?"

He glances around the room. "I can't say."

I throw up my arms in frustration. "Sure, you can say you work for the Legion, but you can't say what you do exactly."

He sighs. "You know what?"

"What?" I say with hostility.

"Here is my omni-tool." He takes his omni-tool off of his wrist and places it in front of me. "Take it. You can get some stuff off of it. Don't bother returning it however. See, I've a very busy person—"

"I'll bet. With all your personas you must be busy as hell." I interrupt snatching the omni-tool off his desk.

He smiles. "Well, thanks to you, I'm one persona less busy. Now if you'll excuse me…"

I stand holding the omni-tool in my hands. I'm about to go to Alex's desk to say goodbye to her, but I decide against it. As far as he knows, Alex and I aren't together. Hopefully it stays that way. The less he knows about me, the better.

I leave the station, holding the omni-tool in my hands. I'll take it back to my place and go over whatever's on here. Hopefully I'll find something useful… Or Mr. Deception is still playing me and this right here is just shit in my hands.

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I enter my apartment, mumbling a politically correct greeting to Ram, Nata and Jada as I pass.

I head straight into my room and take a seat at my desk. I remove my omni-tool and put on The Deceiver's.

I open it and start looking over it. I notice that most of his messages are deleted, but three remain. I open one of the messages.

_Damian Harper,_

_I need that next set of articles for the next issue. Just send them to my assistant. Your deadline is the end of the week. Fornax is a magazine based on punctuality._

_Yours truly,_

_Arbitessa Gall, Head Editor_

Fornax? Oh Conman, what have you been getting yourself into? I open the last message.

_Mr. Thomas Johnson:_

_We would like to thank you for your continual visits and appointments with the Asari Consort Sha'ira. We are, however, sorry to inform you that we must postpone your next appointment with the Consort until Friday rather than Tuesday. She has a backup of appointments this week._

_However, we are prepared to appoint one of the Acolytes to your needs on Tuesday if Friday is not convenient for you. Please appropriate the list of Acolytes and make a selection based on your preferences at least two days before Tuesday so we can make an opening for you. Thank you for your understanding!_

_Acolyte Vaynia_

Appointments with the Consort? Maybe I'll go visit the Consort chambers; you know… say hi to Nelyna? Ask her to check appointments for me?

I open the last message on the omni-tool.

_Gavin_

_In regards to your work application._

_I am willing to accept you as one of the first members of my new store. You will be handling purchases and maintaining the ordering process so that we can have a more efficient system of handling requisitions. Please arrive for your first day of work, the grand opening of my store, on Monday of next week. I look forward to working with you._

_It will be truly spectacular._

_Jorgal Tyrannax_

Holy hell. He knows Tyrannax as well? He's one of the new workers there eh? I suppose we'll see each other again next week. Or I can talk to Tyrannax today.

I remove The Imposter's omni-tool from my wrist and reattach mine.

Alright so who am I going to visit today? Arbitessa Gall at the Fornax headquarters. Tyrannax at his home on Teyseri. And Nelyna down at the Consort's offices.

I grab my jacket and am halfway through putting it on when I realize that I may be dealing with some tough customers here.

I remove my clothing quickly and start putting on my armor. I better take Jada and Zero along for backup just in case.

After I'm finished putting my armor on, I put my helmet on and attach the clamps. I open my omni-tool and type a quick message to Zero.

_Zero_

_I'm going to follow a few leads on Desmond. Meet me at my place, fully armored, and I'll explain more._

_Splicer_

A response comes mere seconds after I send the message.

_Good._

Zero must be pretty worked up over this. He must not take betrayal well. Nata told me that when they spoke to each other after I left, Zero told her all about himself. She said it's a very depressing story and that he told her to not relay it to anybody.

I wish I could've been there. Zero is really a question mark to me. I never really know what he's thinking and he knows a lot of weird stuff. Like krogan and human history.

I grab my guns and attach them to my armor exiting the room as I do. I walk out to the others.

"What's going on?" Jada asks rising to her feet.

"Something's come up. Zero's meeting us here, I'll explain when he gets here." I respond checking the heat sinks and sights on my guns.

She nods and runs into Nata's old room, which I now use as an armory. Jada, Zero, and I all have spare sets of armor and weapons in there as well as a surplus of EVE and medi-gel for emergencies.

Ram looks at me nervously. "Could you take your helmet off? Skulls kind of freak me out."

I shake my head. "Nope, sorry. Just don't look at me."

He sighs and faces the wall.

"I've been meaning to ask, Ram." I say as Jada rejoins me in the living room and starts handing me grenades. "How's Hirvio doing? I haven't seen him in a long time."

"He's getting big." Ram says incredulously. "He's nearly a full grown krogan now. He's grown up really fast. All that remains to develop in his crest and hump. Those out to come in in a few weeks."

I nod. "Good to hear. How big is he? Is he as big as you?"

He shakes his head. "No, he's big for a krogan, but not as big as me."

"Are you worried about how he'll start acting soon?" I ask as I attach grenades to my belt.

He nods. "Very. He's already starting to get restless. Soon he'll be breaking things. I'll have to send him back to Tuchanka to go through the Rite if it gets bad."

I remember how Grunt was acting in ME2 before his loyalty mission. All rage and bloodlust. Hirvio will be going berserk soon. I hope he can last in the Rite, seeing as how he has had nearly no combat experience, let alone fought anyone at all. Hopefully he isn't too bad and won't go through the Rite of Passage.

I rotate myself so Jada can place EVE hypos in my pauldron. Zero enters the apartment suddenly, fully armored and with a fire in his eyes.

"What do you know?" Zero asks quickly as he takes a seat on a stool and faces me.

I wait until Jada finishes adding EVE to my armor. She takes a seat next to Zero and I face them. "I tracked Desmond down. He also works at C-Sec as an analyst like Alex. I spoke with him—"

"He works at C-Sec?" Zero starts angrily. "How have I never noticed that? You spoke with him too? Did he try and fight you off?"

I shake my head. "No, we just talked. I wanted information, he agreed to give it to me willingly but he couldn't tell me much. Instead, he gave me his omni-tool. I accepted it in the hopes that it could lead me somewhere with more information. All there really was on the omni-tool were a few messages. He also works as a writer for Fornax magazine, he got a job at Tyrannax's new store, and he frequents the Consort."

Zero appears thoughtful.

Jada perks up. "Well that's good! We know people from each of those places! All we have to do is go down to each of them and see what they know and then we can see if that leads us somewhere else."

I nod. "That's pretty much what I was planning. The only thing I know about him for sure, is that he is working for the Legion."

Zero looks at me suspiciously before standing. "Let's not waste time. Tyrannax's store isn't far from here, I think he may be there at around this time."

I nod. "Makes sense. I'll see you guys later."

Nata nods. Ram waves at the wall. "Good luck!"

Jada, Zero, and I exit the apartment together and ride the elevator to the lobby. We pass a very tired looking Tullvin who's speaking with a security guard, yelling at him about letting random people into the building.

He's not taking Nelyna's rejection well. Maybe Dalarian senior became an ass in a similar way.

We exit the building and start walking toward Tyrannax's store.

"Hey Splicer?" Jada asks next to me.

I glance at her, my mask flipping off as I turn to look. "Yeah Jada?"

"I'm just curious: Are you going to keep it, just the three of us?" She asks gesturing to the three of us, her mask flipping off.

I shrug. "I don't know… when it comes to stuff I do, specifically, then I have no plans."

She frowns. "Why you specifically?"

Damn, I shouldn't have said that. "Uh… I'm just one of those go with the flow people. I just do things."

I'm at least telling half of the truth. I like to just let stuff happen. You know… work off impulses. And I don't know anything about what'll happen to me specifically, but I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in the next few years or so. Of course, me messing with stuff has drastically clouded my vision of what's going to go down once the events of Mass Effect come in.

I swear I've had quite an impact here haven't I? I'll take a second and analyze the repercussions of my actions.

Well… starting from the beginning is easiest. Okay… Well if I wasn't around then I never would've met Nata. And if I never met Nata, then she would still be in the shelter. And if she was still in the shelter, she may not be alive still.

Or Ramlok. If I didn't do that mission for the Shadow Broker, the Blue Suns would've killed him, leaving Hirvio to die too. Of course Barla Von would still be alive too but that's not exactly a huge loss.

Zero also. If I never existed here, he would've stayed a C-Sec detective that nobody respects.

Nelyna and Alex would've never met me… and they wouldn't be affected very much other than not ever meeting me.

If I didn't come then I never would've done that mission for the Shadow Broker and then the Blue Suns wouldn't have been outlawed and they wouldn't have attacked the Citadel.

And if that didn't happen then the Legion would've gone bankrupt and they wouldn't be around anymore. And I wouldn't be bothered with this crap right now!

I don't even know why I care so much!

Oh yeah… because of Alex. And because of Dalarian. And for Zero. If I can track this Legion Guy down, maybe I can find out what Dalarian was looking for in my apartment. The Legion Guy is in way too deep to be of no significance right now. He's tied with something and I want to know what. This is all very head spinning.

"Splicer! Look out!" Zero shouts from somewhere behind me.

I look up just in time to line my nose up with the tall metal pole.

I collide with it sending an electricity of pain through my face. Dammit! Why didn't I have my mask down?

I clutch at my nose. Is it bleeding? I look at my hand. No… but that hurt!

"What the hell was that?" Jada asks laughing.

I scowl at her. "Shut up. I was lost in thought."

Zero snickers. "We could tell. You just cut the conversation we were having and started staring at the ground for like 7 minutes."

I guess I took a little longer than a second to reflect. "Bastard."

"Well… We're here if you weren't paying attention." Zero says gesturing at the closed store.

I walk up to the front door which is made of glass. I peer inside and see Tyrannax talking with a quarian girl in a forest green gun metal grey enviro suit who's taking notes on her omni-tool.

I rap on the door and Tyrannax turns around. He nods and points at the door.

The quarian runs up and unlocks it. We walk inside and up to Tyrannax.

"Splicer, Detective, Jada." Tyrannax says nodding at each of us respectively.

I nod back. "Tyrannax. How's the business?"

"Slow. Especially considering how I haven't opened yet." He says sarcastically.

I mock laughter. "Oh… you're hilarious. Anyway, we wanted to ask a few questions about your staff."

"Yeah, I know it's weird." Tyrannax says scratching his scarred head plate and looking at the quarian.

I glance at him. "No… not her… Who is she, anyways?"

Tyrannax sighs. "Her name is Iya'Tess nar Helash. She's my new armoring apprentice."

Iya shakes our hands.

Tyrannax sighs again. "Sorry. She doesn't talk much. I'm showing her the ropes and in return she gives me free labor. Eventually, I'll hire her full time once she isn't useless."

Iya glances at Tyrannax but stays silent.

Odd fellow. Well in this Citadel who isn't? "Anyways… We're looking for somebody you've hired recently. Gavin?"

Tyrannax nods. "Ah. Him. He was good with numbers and such so I hired him to run the books and manage the counter. What's it about?"

"We need to find him." Zero says. "Know anything?"

Tyrannax thinks for a second. "All I had on him was his résumé, his omni-tool information and what Ward he lives on: Bachjret. I was… a little curious as to why such a smart guy was stupid enough to put no address on his résumé... if that helps."

"Thanks, you've been a big help." I say exiting the store with my teammates. "Alright. That narrows it down slightly… what do you guys think?"

"I think we need to narrow it down more." Zero growls. "Let's go to the Fornax headquarters next. It's on the Presidium."

I nod. "Maybe it would be a good idea to get Vaga. He's got to be able to get us in, right?"

Zero nods. "Good idea."

"I finally get to meet the infamous Vaga Kotka." Jada says with a small laugh. "I hear you guys telling stories all the time you got me curious."

I sigh. "Don't be. He'll get the wrong idea if you say that."

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

Our taxi lands on Vaga's landing pad. We exit and walk toward the atrium.

Vaga comes out to greet us. "Guys! What a surprise! How about some drinks?"

I shake my head. "No thanks Vaga. We're here on business."

He eyes Jada up and down. "Clearly. This Jada?"

Her mask flips up and Vaga sputters on the drink he sips. "Damn… Nice."

Jada scowls. "I hate him already."

Vaga laughs. "Oh… You'll learn to love me. I'm a great teacher."

I close my eyes slowly and take a deep breath. I shake my head and look at Vaga again. "Listen, we need to speak with the Head Editor at Fornax, Arbitessa Gall. Can you get us in?"

He nods. "Absolutely. But… what's in it for me?"

I frown. "You've never asked for money before."

"Money…" He looks at Jada. "Is not my honey."

"Do you even know what honey is?" Jada asks him, placing her hands on her hips.

He sips his drink. "No. But I like the human idiom because it rhymes. It's a human spice right?"

I shake my head. "No. Let's go."

He sighs and tosses his drink over the edge of his landing pad. "Fine. Let's go."

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

We walk up to the receptionist, a stunning asari.

Vaga smiles at her. "Hey Jaynia. Arbitessa in?"

She smiles back and nods her head over to the hall to our right. "She's in her office."

We turn to walk down the hall, but I stop when I notice Vaga is still speaking with Jaynia. "Vaga?"

He waves me away. "Just go. You don't need me."

I roll my eyes and jog to catch up with Jada and Zero. We find Arbitessa's office and enter ignoring her assistant entirely.

She's an asari, likely a matriarch. She's sitting behind a long desk with her back to a large window overlooking the Presidium. Her face is buried in a datapad. Not literally of course, but she's so focused on it that she didn't even notice us enter.

"Miss Gall?" I say catching her attention. Like seemingly everyone here she's quite a good looking lady.

She frowns. "Who are you? How'd you get past security?"

Jada scoffs and pushes her assistant slightly causing her to stumble backwards. "It wasn't too hard."

Sometimes my team is really annoying. I'm trying to work here! Wonder how Shepard feels. "Miss Gall, we were let in by Vaga Kotka, we're friends of his. I'm Splicer."

"Splicer?" Arbitessa says sitting down. "What do you want with me?"

"We're looking for somebody." Zero says approaching the desk.

I approach as well followed by Jada.

"We're looking for one of your magazine's writers. Damian Harper. We need all the information you can give on him." I say leaning on the desk.

She frowns. "Harper? What do you want with him?"

Jada leans in to her. "He's been a bad boy."

Arbitessa gulps. "Fine. Just give me a second."

She starts typing on her console. Finally after a moment or two, she looks back at us. "We do a very extensive background check on everyone who comes to work for us but I'm surprised by how little we have on him. All we seem to have is his omni-tool information and his residence Block number."

I look at the Block number: 212. "Thank you ma'am. You've been very cooperative."

I drop a 75 credit chit on the desk and exit with my associates.

She stands from her desk before we leave. "Hang on a second!"

I turn around to face her. "Yes?"

"Could you do me one small favor?" She asks eyeing us. "Could you all remove your helmets?"

I frown and look at my cohorts. They shrug and remove their helmets as do I.

Arbitessa smiles at us. "Wow. You three sure are attractive. I would be remiss in my duty if I didn't offer the three of you a spread in a special edition issue of Fornax."

I roll my eyes and exit without giving her an answer, as do my comrades. We each replace our helmets on our heads.

"Block 212. Bachjret." Zero mumbles. "We're getting closer. But without a building number, we could waste days on looking for him."

"I want to get answers from him as much as you do, Zero." I say as we exit the building and start walking toward the Consort's office. "But we need to play smart. So far I think he's leading us somewhere. I get the feeling that he gave small pieces of information to these people on purpose because he knew we'd be looking in on him."

"You really think he's that smart?" Jada asks as we walk over the bridge nearest to the Relay monument.

I nod. "Yes. I do think he's that smart. But I also think he's stupid for involving himself in my life."

Jada chuckles.

As we pass the Relay I notice a sort of ringing in my ears. Wait a minute.

I backpedal back to next to the Relay. The ringing in my ears is really clear. It's coming from the statue. How weird. God! Why is everything so confusing now?

"Ugh… Do you guys hear that?" Jada asks shaking her head. "Makes my head hurt."

Zero nods. "Yeah I do hear it. Spirits that's annoying."

I sigh. "Come on. Let's go."

We start walking again and the sound quickly fades. A pounding in my head signals me that there's going to be another Genetic Ghost.

A small gang of odd looking aliens appear, ringed around what appears to be a dead person.

The Ghost fades quickly after mere seconds, leaving me with a pounding headache.

I ignore it and walk into the Consort's Chamber with Jada and Zero.

We walk up to Nelyna who is busily typing at her console. She looks up at us and smiles. "Splicer! Jada! Zero! It's good to see you! What are you all doing here?"

My mask flips up. "Nelyna, we need your help with something. We're looking for somebody. He frequents here, his name's Thomas Johnson."

She looks left and right nervously. "I-I can't! I could lose my job! We're not supposed to give away client information! If information got into the wrong hands, you don't know what could happen!"

I nod. "I do know what could happen, Nelyna. Lives may be saved. Do you understand me?"

She huffs angrily. "Fine. But if I lose my job you're paying me for regular massages."

"That's not a problem." I say as she searches the clients using her console.

After a few seconds she looks up at us. "All we have is a building number and his omni-tool information."

"Building number! Now!" Zero says threateningly.

"Zero!" I snap at him. "Remember who you're talking to!"

He nods. "I-I apologize. I wasn't in control."

Nelyna stares at him wide eyed before looking back at me. "Building 0013."

I nod. "Thanks, Nelyna."

We leave quickly and head to the nearby transit terminal.

"We've got him!" Zero exclaims excitedly once the taxi is off to the 212 Block on Bachjret. "Time to get some straight answers!"

"Or to get killed." Jada mumbles. That's a little pessimistic if I do say so myself.

"What?" I say looking at her.

She shrugs. "This is all elaborately planned. It's probably a trap."

I smirk. "It's more fun that way."

She laughs. "Good attitude."

"Could you two pipe down?" Zero exclaims again. "I'm trying to focus!"

Jada and I look at him.

"Something bugging you, Zero?" Jada asks.

He shakes his head. "No."

I roll my eyes. Typical Zero. "At any rate, what are you thinking?"

He leans back in his seat and stares out the window at the Citadel. "I think we're about to get some answers. For both of us."

I nod. "Got that right."

The cab lands at a transit station and we exit.

We jog down to the address that we picked from everybody. Building 0013 in the 212 Block of the Bachjret ward… That can't be right.

It looks like a warehouse.

Jada groans. "Now I'm positive it's a trap."

"Doesn't matter." Zero growls walking determined to the door of the warehouse. "Desmond will have to answer for what he did."

"What did he do, exactly?" Jada asks jogging after him followed by me.

Zero pulls the lock off the door in a feat of impressive strength. He looks over his shoulder at us. "He betrayed me."

Zero pushes the doors open and walks inside. Jada looks at me confused. She shrugs, her mask flips down and she hurries after Zero.

I take a second longer. What the fuck happened to him? I want to know so bad!

I sigh and draw my assault rifle as my mask closes. Guess I'll never know.

I walk inside the warehouse.

Immediately I am bathed in darkness.

"Zero? Jada?" I call out to the darkness.

No response.

I sigh and activate Detective Mode. The first thing I see instead of an illuminated room is a skull not two inches from my face.

I gasp and try to bash the assailant away with my rifle on instinct, but he is ready and ducks under the clumsy attack.

He quickly jabs my unprotected armpit as I swing causing my right arm to spasm. My rifle fires a shot into the dark illuminating it for a split second.

He spins around me and palm strikes my helmet, breaking the fragile Detective lenses and plunging me into darkness again.

My head snaps backwards as a result of the attack and I feel my assailant's back against mine and his arm look over my head pulling me backwards.

He flips me over his back and throws me face down onto the ground, delivering a pair of swift but powerful kicks to my ribs then hand, knocking my rifle from it and sending it into the darkness, before I can even catch my breath.

I spin myself around and leap to my feet but my assailant has already disappeared into the blackness.

I reach for my shotgun but I feel an iron grip on my wrist.

My assailant twists my wrist and pulls my arm upward, nearly popping my shoulder from its socket. He kicks me in the back of the knee forcing me down.

The lights suddenly turns on blinding me.

I squeeze my eyes shut and look down at the floor. After the pain in my eyes has dissipated I look back up at the room.

I'm in the massive warehouse, farther from the front door than I thought I was. Though I'd hardly call it a warehouse anymore. It's clearly a base of operations now.

The room is sectioned off into many different sections. Closest to my right is a large set of tables and cafeteria. Past that is a large section of bunks. Past that, I cannot see from my angle.

Closest on my left is what appears to be a crude armory. Racks of weapons and armor are lined together with barely enough room in between to scratch your knee. Past that is what appears to be a fighting ring. Past that I cannot see.

It's a base, to be sure.

Or maybe it's a throne room.

In the middle of the room on a stage of sorts is an office setting. Lavish furniture and decorations adorn the stage, including a wooden… yes wooden desk. There's a large leather chair behind the desk with a lion's pelt sitting on top of it.

That seems to be the theme here. Lions.

The room is lined with huge red tapestries or flags with a white circle in the center. In the circle is the image of a gold lion with a mane of gold snakes.

Other than myself and my attacker, I'm definitely not alone.

There are at least a dozen fully armored Centurions lined up, making a pathway to the stage.

They don't have their guns pointed at me, but they hold them at attention. They're clearly well trained.

I see Zero held down by four Centurions just behind the pathway, nearer to the armory.

I look to the other side and I see Jada unconscious on the ground with a Centurion kneeling over her.

"Splicer. You've tracked me down. Again." I hear a familiar voice say.

My assailant pulls me to my feet and kicks me toward the stage. I look back at him and he is holding my shotgun and handgun in each hand. He must've taken them from me just now.

He follows me as I walk toward the stage.

I reach it and stop.

I look back at the assailant and he nods me on.

I hop onto the chest level stage and toward the desk and empty chair.

Behind the chair, the man we've been after walks, taking a seat in the chair with a sigh.

He's fully armored now except for a helmet. His armor is mostly white, with red and gold designs and markings. On his chest a similar logo to the one on the tapestries appears, emblazoned in shining gold.

He nods at a chair behind me. "Have a seat, and we can talk."

I sit and stare him down.

He frowns. "What no questions?"

Son of a bitch. "One. Though I think the answer won't come as a shock to anyone in this room. Who are you?"

He leans back in his chair. "My name is Hadrian Titanus Trajan. I am the Legate of the Legion."

**A/N: :O Say what? So "Desmond" turns out to be the leader of the Legion. And now Splicer is trapped in their clutches! What will happen next? Check it out next week.**

**Oh, one last order of business, I'm going on a vacation in a few weeks so next week, the Tuesday of July 24 will be the last time I update until the Tuesday August 14. Sorry but you'll just have to wait a little while. I'll think about throwing a few bonus chapters or whatever out there but I'm not sure. Probably not though.**

**Anyways, I'll see you guys next week.**

**Mockingbird79**


	33. Chapter 33 Memento Mori

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>Avarus animus nullo satiatur lucro."<strong>

***A greedy mind is satisfied with no amount of gain***

**~Latin Proverb~ (In Latin!)**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 33: Memento Mori<strong>

**9:34 PM May 24, 2182**

* * *

><p>"Are you sure that's your real name?" I ask sardonically.<p>

The Legate, Hadrian Titanus Trajan, nods. "Yes… That is my real name."

"It's kind of a mouthful. And it's far too BS for it to be real." I say, glaring at him.

Trajan shrugs. "Everyone is entitled to an opinion, I suppose."

I roll my eyes. This guy's a prick. I hope he dies. "I don't understand."

Trajan frowns. "You don't understand what?"

"Why?"

He smiles. "Because. Like I said: You're interesting."

I slam my fist on his desk and lean in at him. "That's it? That's all? You're fucking crazy!"

He smiles again. "Ok… do you want the truth?"

I throw my arms up. "Yes! Finally some cooperation instead of cryptic responses!"

Trajan stands. "Okay then. Hm… Where to start?"

Trajan paces back and forth for a time, pondering. "Well, I'll start at the beginning. I was hoping you've noticed the connection of my aliases."

I sigh and take a second to think. Let's see… Tyrannax's store. Binary Helix. The Consort. Fornax. C-Sec… I've got nothing. I shrug.

He sighs in disappointment. "You."

I frown. Me? How wonderfully cryptic.

"Let me explain." Thank you. "All my aliases point to you. Each one, gives me an in with you. It's easier to work backwards. The krogan's store was my most recent adaptation. He does all work on your armor. I could learn what upgrades are in your armor and instruct my warriors to compensate properly."

That's how that squirrelly bastard knew how to take out Detective Mode! Son of a bitch!

"Then the Fornax editorials. Your friend, Vaga, has a tendency to fornicate with anything that has eyes to look at him. I used his weakness to elicit information from him by planting some of my more attractive soldiers onto his path. They provided information on your more personal life." Fucking Vaga…

"The Consort's Chambers. Nelyna is a close friend of yours. I've been trying to speak with her since starting my visits but I've never had the opportunity. My plan was to learn more about your work ethic and focus from her." I'm glad he never got close to Nelyna. That may have taken me over the edge.

"Binary Helix was a complete lie." He looks at Zero. "Sorry, Zero. But I needed a way to explain the implants."

Zero growls and struggles against his restraints.

"As I was saying." Trajan continues. "I knew Zero was romantically linked with Nata, who is your closest friend? Well she's been a big source of information on your persona and psychology." Bastard.

"What about C-Sec?" I snarl at him.

He frowns. "What do you mean? That's just a coincidence. My alias there has nothing to do with you."

So he doesn't know that Alex and I are a couple… interesting…

He looks at me. "Unless…"

Crap.

His eyes widen. "Of course. How else would you have known I worked at C-Sec?"

"How long have you worked there?" Zero roars at him.

"Almost a year." Trajan responds neutrally.

Zero screams in fury, struggling against the Centurion pinning him to the floor. "I hate you!"

Yeesh… Zero is getting worked up. You better hope he doesn't whip out the biotics.

Trajan smiles at me. "I cannot believe I didn't see it before. Your connection to C-Sec: Alex Silva, a fellow analyst."

My heart skips a beat at her name. "You lay a finger on her: You'll burn!"

His smile fades slightly. "You're not in a position to threaten. As I was saying before. I've been looking in on you, for quite some time now, nearly two months now. This is due to the fact that I received a high paying work offer from the Cerberus Organization."

FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKK! I hate Cerberus! I swear I'm going to be at odds with them in ME2!

"The job was to, by any means necessary, get information from you." Trajan says taking a seat back in his chair. "I thought you were too interesting and good to simply torture physically or emotionally. So instead, I decided to work my way in as a sleeper agent. Eventually one of the aliases would fit itself into your life. Then I would get my information."

"What information do they want?" I ask him while suppressing the urge to attack him.

"They want to know about what makes you special. And they want me to collect samples for research." He says placing a syringe on the desk. "If you willingly give me your blood, and answer a few questions, then you are free to go, with your friends, and you'll never see me again."

Tempting. "One more question for you, if I may."

He nods. "Absolutely."

"Why the secrecy?"

He sighs. "You may or may not have learned this about me, but I was formally a lieutenant commander in the Alliance Navy. Well, I am wanted by the Alliance for treason, desertion, fraud, attempted bribery of a government official, assault of a government official, assaulting an officer of the law, murder on the 1st degree, grand-theft, and terrorism. And that was all in one day. I have a rather substantial bounty on my head, actually."

I smile under my helmet. "The Alliance better have that money ready."

Trajan laughs. "You can't be serious!"

I activate Insect Swarm and Concussive Force. "Oh I am."

I send a swarm of Insects at him while simultaneously spinning around and launching a Concussive wave down the path of soldiers.

I see Zero take advantage of the distraction, breaking his restraints off and biotic punching a soldier into the far wall.

Jada instantly leaps to her feet and snaps the arm of the soldier kneeling next to her. I knew she was faking. I don't think it's possible to knock her out. I use Telekinesis to retrieve my guns from the red splatter that was my attacker. That's why you stand away from me when I use Concussive Force.

I spin around with my shotgun raised but Trajan is gone.

I roll over his desk and knock it over to hide behind it as the Centurions start recovering.

I pop out of cover and pick one off with a blast from my shotgun. They are all still recovering from the concussion wave. A few are up and ready for combat again, but they are flanked on three sides.

Zero and Jada quickly advance and hold their shotguns up at the Centurions.

"Drop em!" Zero roars at the mercs.

The Centurions look at each other unsure. A few are looking around the room for their leader.

Finally they surrender and place their weapons on the floor.

A mechanical roar from behind me makes me spin around. A red M29 Grizzly turns the corner and aims its cannon at me.

Fuck.

I raise my hand by instinct just as it fires and I catch the projectile mid-air with Telekinesis. I stare down the massive, red hot, and spinning round. I rotate it using Telekinesis and aim it at the Grizzly.

I can just imagine Trajan shitting himself right now… actually? I don't want to imagine that. I don't know what I was thinking.

I launch the projectile back at the Grizzly with all the power I can muster. It pierces through its shielding and flies straight through the Grizzly.

No explosion? Aw… that's anti-climactic.

The mechanical roaring of the tank dies down to a sad sputtering.

An access hatch on the top opens and I see Trajan clumsily pulling himself out and falling to the ground. He gets up and starts running in the opposite direction.

"Splicer! Go get him!" Zero yells.

I don't even bother with nodding or acknowledging the order. I just leap off of the stage and charge after Trajan. For someone who's fully armored and who has artificial legs he can run damn fast. Faster than I can run even, and that's with Sports Boost giving me an edge. I rush forward with Aero Dash and close the distance slightly. Trajan turns a corner at the other end of the room and disappears through a door.

I sprint after him and bash through the door, ramming my shoulder into it. I spot Trajan running at a door at the end of the hall. If he makes it out that door it'll be nearly impossible to find him again. I raise my hand quickly and drop a Cyclone Trap on the floor in front of the door. Trajan charges at the door and runs straight into the plasmid. It sends him flying into the ceiling, only a few feet up off the ground.

Trajan hits the ceiling and bounces back down onto the ground. I sprint forward and close the distance. He gets up, shakes his head and runs up some stairs to the left of the exit. I charge after him, running up the stairs as fast as I possibly could, yet that still isn't fast enough. Trajan somehow manages to overtake flights of stairs with impossible speed.

I growl between my teeth and keep an eye on him as I take the stairs three at a time. I spot Trajan running through a door a floor above me. I chase after him and charge through the door, finding myself on a walkway high above the rest of the warehouse. The walkway dangles over the ground from steel cables and it sways slightly from Trajan's footfalls.

Trajan is already halfway across the walkway. I'll never catch up to him in time…

Better improvise. I activate Telekinesis and use it to take a large gun rack from the warehouse floor and I throw it into the walkway. The walkway sways and lurches violently sending us both falling down to the floor of the walkway. I spy Trajan grabbing the railing to pull himself up. Big mistake. I grab both railings and activate Electro Bolt and I charge the walkway with electricity. Trajan gets electrocuted and he falls to the ground, smoking and unconscious. I run after him, sprinting as fast as I can.

Trajan slowly starts getting up. He looks back and sees me not, 10 yards away. So instead of surrendering, he rolls himself off the edge of the walkway.

Crap!

I dive over the edge of the walkway and I use Aero Dash to close the distance but end up colliding into Trajan. I catch him and we fall more than 25 meters toward the ground. This is going to hurt.

I land on my back, hitting the ground so hard, my head whips back and the back of my head collides with the ground, cracking my helmet. I cough and push Trajan off of me to lessen the pain in my chest, back and head.

I rise to my feet slowly and yank off my helmet. I grab Trajan's collar and drag him over to the rest of the Centurions. I toss him onto the ground in their midst and they all stare at him, waiting for something to do.

Trajan coughs and rises onto all fours, clutching at his stomach.

The door bursts open and scores of C-Sec officers burst in and point guns at all of the Legionaries.

Pallin enters the building followed by a few detectives. He walks up to Hadrian.

"Legate Hadrian Titanus Trajan, the Alliance will have a wet dream when they hear about this." Pallin says with a laugh. Ew.

Hadrian smiles at Pallin. Does he feel no pain? He seems to have completely forgotten about the fact he fell about 100 feet. "Executor Venari Pallin. It's a pleasure to meet you. Though we've actually met before."

Pallin frowns. "I… You do look vaguely familiar."

Hadrian smiles and his eyes brighten. This guy really gets off on fooling people. "I actually have a job with C-Sec. I work as an analyst. I use a false name of course."

Pallin's eyes widen and his mandibles slack. "I do know you!" Pallin's eyes alight with a fire of anger. "Detective." Pallin says at one of the detectives. "Take this man to the station. I need to make a call to Ambassador Udina."

"Yes, sir." The detective responds.

He pulls Hadrian to his feet and leads him by the arm to the door. Hadrian smiles at me before he leaves. I hope I never see that guy ever again. He was creepy.

Pallin strides up to me. "I'm impressed, Splicer, and that isn't easy for me to say to a human."

"… Thanks Pallin." I say after a short pause, sarcastically.

"You're welcome." Pallin responds with a curt nod, seemingly oblivious to my sarcasm. "I won't ask how you tracked him down but I'll be sure you get the bounty the Alliance has for him. Would you like to give the good news to Udina yourself?"

I instantly shake my head. "No! No… That's fine. I must be getting home now."

He nods. "Yes. Good day, Splicer. And good work."

I hop off the stage and lead Jada and Zero out of the building, after we're outside; I stop and turn to them. "Well that was interesting wasn't it?"

Zero shrugs. "Like I said. Closure. Though I have to say that this seemed like a big waste of time."

"Why?"

He shrugs again. "It all seemed rather pointless if you ask me. I mean sure, we may get a bounty from the Alliance. Sure we caught a sort of bad guy but why were we so driven in the first place?"

I frown at him. "This coming from the guy who threatened Nelyna for information? I need to keep my loved ones safe from harm! I knew that he was a danger to me and everyone I care about. And it turns out he was working for freaking Cerberus! God they won't leave me alone!"

"So you're after them now?" Jada asks.

"No." I say smiling at her. "I can't track them down. They're too good."

Jada rolls her eyes. "You mean you're too lazy to."

I nod. "Precisely. It would take way longer than a day to find them."

Zero laughs. "Right… Hey Splicer, why weren't you bothered by Pallin's remark earlier? The one about humans or whatever?"

I shrug. "I grew up in a pretty prejudiced place. You learn to let that stuff fly over your head."

Zero frowns. "Did you… live on Tuchanka or something?"

I laugh. "No. I grew up in a little town in California on Earth. The population there was mostly Asian and Hispanic. I was actually a minority there. I got a lot of crap, but I learned to let race mean absolutely nothing."

Zero stares at me confused for a while. "You just said a lot of stuff I didn't understand. What are California, Asian, and Hispanic?"

I roll my eyes. "Never mind let's just go."

Jada glances at me. "Zero's right though. Come to think of it, you don't seem to think anybody is any different than your own reflection."

Nice way of putting it. I don't know… I guess since I've played the games and stuff the aliens seem more human to me. While playing I never really cared what species a person was, just how cool they were. And everyone in Mass Effect is pretty awesome.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Jada asks me staring at me like I'm a madman. "You're talking about games and stuff."

Fucking inner monologue. "Sorry, forget it."

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I walk into my bedroom wearing naught but a pair of pajama pants. I fall face first onto the bed with a grunt. Stress… Kills… I need a Nelyna massage. Hopefully she got fired so I can get them regularly.

The door to my room opens and I hear someone enter, toss some stuff onto my desk and sit next to me.

A familiar hand runs over my back and all my scars. "How was your day, honey?"

I scream into my bed in response.

"That bad?" Alex asks concerned.

I nod, smashing my nose against the firm mattress.

"Aw…" She coos, lying down onto my back and swirling a finger around a lumpy bullet exit wound scar.

I yelp as a sudden jolt of pain shoots from the scar. "Careful! Those are sensitive!"

"Sorry." She says guiltily. "Are you stressed? You feel a little tensed."

I nod. "Yeah, a little. I think I may get another massage from Nelyna…" I smile at her. "Speaking of which though, you look a little tensed up yourself. How about a massage?"

Alex perks up immediately. "Yeah!"

She strips quickly and lies face down on the bed. "Leave no muscles unattended."

"Cloves!" I yell, starting to work on her neck. "Lock my door and soundproof the apartment."

"_At once, sir."_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Oh my.**

**Hope you guys liked the chapter. It was a little shorter than usual, but I cut some stuff out because it was stupid. Business now.**

**So… here's the thing. The end of Massive Shock part 1 is coming to a close. But… the thing is… Massive Shock part 2 is **_**far**_** too under developed. I have like… 5 chapters done for it. And the worst part about it is that the stuff I have written **_**SUCKS!**_** So I'm going to have to make it way better over time. I've been working hard on it, but I **_**may**_** have to delay the release of part 2 for a while. I've actually been focusing heavily on part 3, which was dumb of me I know but part 3 takes place during the 2 years Shepard is dead in ME2. And it's nice to not be bound within canon and to have complete creative freedom. I'll keep you guys informed, don't worry. But don't get too mad at me for my laziness. I'm already beating myself up as it is.**

**Well… See you next week I guess. Oh and like I said last week, I won't post anything for the next two Tuesdays. Leaving later this week for a vacation. I'll be back and posting chapter 34 on August 14. See you then.**


	34. Chapter 34 Seemingly Random Events

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

* * *

><p>"<strong>If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."<strong>

**~Lewis Carroll~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 34: Seemingly Random Events<strong>

**1:18 PM December 19, 2182**

* * *

><p>"Come on, man!" Zero pleads.<p>

I sigh and stand from my couch. "I said no!"

"We haven't had a job since we captured Trajan!" He cries incredulously, taking a seat on a stool. "The 150,000 we got from the Alliance did me some good but I'm itching for more action."

I sigh and sit next to him. True, I haven't accepted any jobs since capturing Trajan, but it's not like I have an obligation to! All the jobs I've been getting are for things like tracking down spouses, killing somebody, and random wet work. Nothing noble in the slightest has come in. I think people see more as a tool than anything.

I stopped taking vague jobs after I was offered a job that didn't say what I had to do. I showed up and the client was a 12 year old kid who wanted me there for his birthday party.

I stopped taking job offers all together when people started trying to get me to extort money from people. Though it's not like I haven't been busy, I have done a little charity work. Like I got a message onto my extranet site from an Alliance marine who asked if I could be her date to some formal ball. I was actually touched she asked me. Of course I asked Alex's permission first, she thought it was sweet and let me attend.

That was a fun night. And the marine was quite charming.

Though now thinking of Alex, I'm a little concerned. Since her birthday last month she's been acting strangely. Every time I talk to her, it's like she wants to tell me something but she can't muster up the courage to do it. Next time I see her, I'll have to ask her what's up.

"Splicer?" Zero asks next to me.

I jump. "What?"

"Well?"

"Oh! Right!" I say apologetically. "Um… Alright Zero, we'll do something soon. But not until after tomorrow."

"Why not tomorrow?" Zero asks.

"It's the 20th." I respond, simply.

"What's wrong with the 20th?" Zero asks curiously.

I cringe. Shouldn't have been so specific. I've always thought my birthday was cursed. Now I really think it's cursed. I mean, what are the chances that I spontaneously travel through time twice on the exact same date? Pretty slim, I'm guessing.

"The 20th is my birthday. Please don't tell anyone!" I say quickly and pleadingly.

Zero looks shocked. "Why not? Birthdays are fun! Remember Alex's and Nata's? Vaga can throw one hell of a party!"

I sigh. "Yeah, yeah he's a hoot. But seriously Zero. I hate my birthday."

"Why?" He asks curiously.

"I just do. Alright? Bad things happen on my birthday. I'd like to just wait it out." I say morosely.

Zero shrugs. "No skin off my hide. I checked the site and we got some pretty sweet job offerings on Illium if you're interested?"

I shake my head. "No work off the Citadel."

"Why?" Zero questions. "You have that ship docked still, why don't you use it?"

"One, because I don't have a pilot and SNAKE can't fly starships. Two because I like to keep my horizons small. Three because… I still haven't replaced that helmsman's chair." I respond firmly, my voice faltering at the end. The guilt from being responsible for Jin's death has haunted me for a long time. I try not to think about it.

Zero shrugs. "Alright. As long as we do something soon. I'm getting flabby."

I chuckle. "Right… well when you have the time, could you run down to Jada's apartment and pick up the ADAM she got for me? I've been running super low with my experiments."

"What have you been doing?" Zero asks sounding less interested and more polite.

"I've been trying to reciprocate Suchong's catalyst." I respond simply. Let's see if I can't pique his interest. I feel like talking.

He frowns. "What's Suchong's catalyst?"

I smile. Gotcha. "It's the primary ingredient in Cell Serum, which is this green serum that can temporarily make your cells reproduce faster. I can use it to instantly heal mortal or potentially fatal injuries, it can prolong your lifespan, and it gives you a youthful glow."

He widens his eyes in interest. "Sounds pretty useful. Have you been successful at all?"

I shake my head in disappointment. "No… I'm not even close. I have no idea what's in it, or how it works. So I'm kind of shooting blindly. Yesterday though, I made some strides in how the Keepers produce ADAM."

"How's that?" He asks.

I shrug. "Can't say for sure. But I found out, that ADAM is not really part of their blood. It's actually comes from some glial tissue in-"

"I'm going to stop you right there." Zero says standing and walking to the door. "I'm not really good with biology."

I nod. "Alright I'll spare you then. See you later, man."

He nods. "See you."

He leaves and I spin myself in my stool around a few times. I sigh…

Now what? I can't play with ADAM… I already exercised this morning. Alex is taking a nap. Nata is at Zero's. Jada is at her place probably. Vaga is probably fornicating somewhere. Ram and Hirvio are training for Hirvio's Rite of Passage… though I don't know how much Ram can help with that. Nelyna is still working… I'm alone.

This never seemed like much of an issue back when I was a kid. I had video games to kill time when I had nothing else to do. Now they don't really appeal to me. I mean, I'm living a freaking game, why would I waste that experience by playing one.

Well… I guess I could… Uh… Oh! I have an idea. A thought has been nagging at me for a while. Nobody seems to have heard of Rapture at all here. I can't remember if Rapture's existence was kept secret in the games, but Columbia from Bioshock Infinite definitely wasn't. Damn… I just realized that I never got to play a lot of games that came out after I got sent to Rapture:

Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioshock Infinite, Halo 4, Borderlands 2, Resident Evil 6, Max Payne 3, Sleeping Dogs, Dead Space 3… Mass Effect 3! I just realized that I have absolutely no idea of what's going to happen in ME3! It's like I'll be an actual character or something, finding this stuff out for the first time. It didn't seem like such a big deal until just now…

Well. Nothing I can do about it now. I'll go visit humanity's representative for a little history lesson.

* * *

><p><strong>Later…<strong>

I walk into Ambassador Udina's office. Technically I'm not allowed in here. But a little overt flirtation with Saphyria and I'm in. Which reminds me: I need a haircut. Udina is standing on the balcony of the Embassy, looking out at the Citadel, drink in his hand. How professional.

I clear my throat loudly to get his attention.

He turns around. "Who are…? Splicer? What are you doing here?"

I smile. "This may seem unorthodox, but I need to learn a little about human history, if you'll oblige me?"

He frowns. "I'm actually quite busy."

"Clearly." I retort gesturing at his drink.

"What this?" He says innocently. "I'm just taking a small break."

"Then maybe you could spare a few minutes of that break to answer some questions from the man who saved your life?" I say smiling.

He sighs. "Fine. What would you like to know?"

I sigh. "Alright… In the 1900's, a few years before World War I…"

"That's going quite far back." Udina says with a sigh. "What makes you think I know all this stuff?"

"You seem pretty old." I respond.

He narrows his eyes at me. "Thanks… I'm actually 52."

"Alright… I don't know what to do with that information." There's a short awkward pause. "Anyways. I need to know. Did the United States make a flying city called Columbia?"

Udina stares at me for a few seconds in silence before snorting with laughter. "Is that a joke? I've never heard such nonsense!"

I sigh. "It sure was. Have a nice day, Udina."

I turn and leave. Shit… So Columbia doesn't exist? That's strange. Does that mean that I'm in a totally different universe? If it does then I didn't just travel through time, I travelled through space itself and into another universe… who would've thought the path to another universe lay in a crevice at the bottom of the Atlantic?

I exit the embassies, waving absently at Saphyria as I exit. If I really did simply travel to another universe then there are a lot of incongruities that I don't understand. For instance: Why does ADAM exist in the Mass Effect Universe? That is the big question, I think. Maybe I can learn something if I collect enough of it. But I'll keep that secret to myself, and potentially reap the benefits of knowing more than other people do. I do retain a certain kind of power by knowing things that other people don't, such as the events of the next few years, or even the Reapers' arrival in a few years.

I find myself in the Consort's Chambers somehow. How did I wind up here? Oh right… walking.

I walk up to Nelyna who smiles at me brightly. "Splicer! How are you?"

I shrug. "Fine."

"What are you doing here?" She asks looking down at her console.

"Well, I was in the neighborhood and I thought I'd drop by." I say with a shrug.

She looks up at me confused. "You're not here about your appointment?"

"Appointment?" I ask confused.

She nods. "Yes, don't you remember? You scheduled an appointment before you did work for the Consort? You paid for it and everything."

I look at her console. Well I'll be damned. Oh right… God that seemed like it was a while ago. I made an appointment before the Battle of the Suns. And here I thought that it had been cancelled. Oh well.

Nelyna smiles. "The Consort is free. Would you like to use your appointment?"

What the hell? I shrug. "Why not?"

Nelyna nods and gestures to the stairwell at the back. "Please, go up and see her now."

I nod and walk past her to the stair way and up to the Sha'ira's room.

I enter and approach her as she sits on the couch across the room.

She stares at me in earnest. "Splicer. I've been expecting you. How can I, the Consort, fulfill your needs today?"

I take a seat with a sigh. "I'm not actually sure."

She smiles slightly and nods understandingly. "I see. Well, if you don't mind, I would like to access your needs."

I look up at her. "How?"

"Shhh…" She says lifting my head with a hand and staring into my eyes.

After a very long time that feels like seconds, my green eyes looking into her silvery azure ones, she looks away with a smile. "I know what you want."

I turn to her in interest. She's really good at getting me into this. "What? I don't even know."

The Consort smiles slightly. "It's quite simple really, and quite understandable given your circumstances. You want to be understood. You desire nothing more than to have someone else that understands you, and who understands the things you do not."

I turn away thoughtfully. Huh… She couldn't be more right. Damn she's good. "So… what? Do I just talk to you about my crap and you'll just listen?"

She shakes her head. "No. I think a simple mind meld will suffice, in which I search your heart, find your feelings. After a time, we will understand each other, perfectly."

I raise my eyebrows curiously. Am I ready for that? For someone to know what's happened to me? Well… I suppose worse people could be searching my past or my hardware as Psycho-Mantis would put it.

Her smile fades into a serious expression. "Are you ready?"

I gulp. "As ready as I'll ever be."

I rotate myself and face her, sitting cross legged on the couch, she does the same. She raises her hands to the sides of my head and closes her eyes. "Clear your mind."

I suddenly remember something. "Wait!"

I pull her hands off my head and she opens her eyes confused. "What is wrong?"

"We did the same thing months ago. You didn't understand my dreams before. Did you figure anything out from them, did you meditate or whatever on them, like you said you would?" I ask sort of desperately.

She nods. "I did. First, I must ask if you're still having the dreams."

I shake my head. "No. I haven't had any in months."

The Consort nods slowly. "I see. Well in that case then I can tell you that, you dreams have conveyed something that is beyond even my comprehension. The universe is at constant work and it is beyond our understanding. But the universe is like a living organism. And it has taken an interest in you."

I frown. Me?

She smiles. "Now are you ready?"

I shrug. "I suppose."

She places her hands on the sides of my head again and closes her eyes. "Clear your mind… You have to clear your mind."

"I can't!" I yell frustrated. "The stuff you just told me is making my head spin!"

She sighs. "Think of something simple. Like… a lamp. Or a kitten. Think of a lamp or a kitten."

Unorthodox, but okay. I close my eyes and think of kittens.

The Consort places her hands on the sides of my head and closes her eyes. "Clear your mind… Now what?"

"How do you know what kittens are?" I ask curiously. I thought about kittens and then I thought about how she knew what they were.

She rolls her eyes. For the first time ever, she conveys emotion: Impatience. "It does not matter. Think of a lamp. Okay?"

I shrug. "Sure…"

I think of a small purple lamp turning itself on and off.

She sighs and places her hands on the sides of my head and closes her eyes. "Clear your mind."

I lose the thoughts of lamps and my mind goes clear.

She opens her eyes they're black like jet. "Embrace Eternity!"

* * *

><p><strong>Hours Later…<strong>

The Consort's hands move off of my temples and rest in my lap.

I open my eyes weakly.

She stares at me. "This is beyond my understanding."

I smile wearily. "See why I want to be understood?"

The Consort smiles at me. "I do. I must meditate on this. Please return tomorrow."

I stand wobbly and walk out of Sha'ira's room. I walk down the stairs, using the walls to support myself.

There are only a few people left in the place, Nelyna included.

"Splicer, you were in there a while." She says curiously.

I sigh. "Yeah, she was mind melding me. Does it usually take that long?"

She shakes her head. "No. It usually takes a few moments, even seconds. That must have been one hell of a melding."

I shrug. "I guess. Want to get dinner?"

She smiles and nods. "Yes, I would like that."

We leave the Consort's Chambers and walk to a classy asari restaurant. Luckily I'm not the only human in the establishment. There are a few others with their significant other. We take a seat at a table and I immediately lie my head down on it after our orders are taken.

Nelyna chuckles and pats my head. "Hey, wake up. This is a classy place. It would be rude to do that."

I groan and sit up. "God I'm exhausted."

She smiles. "Yes, sometimes a melding can be taxing on the body and the mind."

I sigh. "I've noticed. Even the Consort seemed tired."

Nelyna looks at me shocked. "Really? That's strange."

I shrug. "It was pretty intense. She searched my very soul. She should know everything about me now."

"Yes, not even your friends know anything about you." Nelyna says nonchalantly.

I frown at her. "Hey, don't you try and take advantage of my weakened state here. I'm a frozen lake. If you want to get at the waters underneath you'll have to break through the thick ice. All you guys have just scratched the surface."

Nelyna smiles at me. "Then why don't you tell me about yourself?"

I smirk and take a drink of water. "You're going to have to use sharper tools, Nelyna. Questions won't break my ice."

She frowns. "Fine. I'll settle with my ice shavings thank you very much. If the water underneath is as cold as its exterior, then I don't think I want a drink."

"… Are we still talking about me?" I ask confused.

She rolls her eyes with an exasperated sigh. "Never mind."

Our waitress brings us our food. I'm about to start eating, but my omni-tool lights up and alerts me of a new message.

I look up at Nelyna and give an apologetic expression. She waves me on.

I open the new message from Alex.

_Hey_

_What are you doing right now?_

I type a short response.

_I'm eating dinner with Nelyna._

_Why?_

I send it and take a drink from my drink.

I get a reply quickly. It says:

_Something's come up. Could you come by? I need to talk to you now._

I smile. Looks like she's ready to tell me what she wanted to tell me.

_No problem. Love you!_

I send the message and look up at Nelyna apologetically. "Sorry Nelyna, but something's come up, I need to head home."

She looks at me a little disappointed. "Oh. Okay. I'll see you tomorrow?"

I nod. "Sure. See you."

I give a friendly kiss on the forehead before departing the restaurant in a hurry, my jacket in hand. I pay the check before I leave of course. Because I'm a gentleman.

I put my jacket on and head over to a cab terminal. I pay for a trip to my apartment building and enter the taxi quickly.

I let my head fall back against the headrest with a sigh. I hope whatever Alex wants to talk to me about isn't bad… Oh God… Maybe she's preggers? If she is then I can't go adventuring with Shepard! I'd have a family to take care of for goodness sakes! Oh man… she's going to be pregnant isn't she? This is really nerve wracking!

Suddenly the cabin of the cab lights up as a small hologram of a group of armored people appears.

"_Splicer!"_ One exclaims. _"Time for the hero to fall!"_

A sudden high pitched beeping that is increasing in speed starts from the dashboard.

I throw my palm up at the door and blast it out was a concussion from Concussive Force.

I dive out and plummet toward the Presidium Lake. The cab explodes after a second in a rain of glass and fire. I feel a wave of heat and pressure hit my back quickening my fall.

I take a deep breath as the water approaches and I shut my eyes.

The impact takes me by surprise. I didn't know water could feel so hard.

I quickly swim back up to the surface, gasping for air because it was all knocked out of me when I hit the water.

I swim over to the edge and pull myself out of the water, breathing heavily. Was that just an assassination attempt?

I get to my feet and my first thought is the danger to Alex.

I start sprinting to the Wards access trams. I force my way through the crowds gathering to observe the flaming debris raining from the sky. In no time I'm in a tram and headed to Zakera.

I notice the other people inside at about halfway. They're all staring at me in confusion, most likely because I'm completely soaked. I pound my fist on the railing trying to get it to go faster, to no avail. If anything it's going slower somehow.

Come on! If they're after me, then they may be after Alex! I don't know who the hell they are, but they're going down!

The tram slows to a stop at Zakera Ward and I instantly sprint out of the tram toward my apartment building in the Shin Akiba district.

As I run I take multiple shortcuts, including alleyways and through buildings. I collide multiple times with people as I sprint throwing them to the ground. That's definitely not good for my image.

My legs pumping like pistons and moving me with explosive force, I sprint at speeds that go unnoticed by me. My entire mind is focused on Alex.

Finally I round the corner to my apartment building and a familiar group of armored soldiers are standing outside waiting for me, with assault rifles drawn. The area is completely deserted. These guys know their stuff.

My chest heaving and my lungs burning, I walk up to them slowly, only now noticing the numbness in my legs.

"Splicer," The supposed leader says menacingly. "On some levels I'm glad to see you-"

I wave at him for him to stop, panting. "Cut the shit. I'm too out of breath to listen to a stupid monologue. Just attack me now so I can kill you."

They all look at each other amused. They start laughing loudly.

They look official enough, their dark customized armor gleaming in the light. New armor, new weapons, haircuts, they've prepared for this. How flattering. None of them wear helmets, obviously a sign of confidence or arrogance. Or both. They're all human and all armed with assault rifles and pistols. I doubt any are biotic, but I won't drop my guard. I'm at a disadvantage here, unarmed and unarmored. I don't even have any spare EVE.

This puts me in a tough situation. I've never been good at improvising. I glance around quickly, scanning the area. Nothing. I have enough energy, I think, for at least 5 plasmids… better make them count.

I activate Telekinesis and Electro Bolt. I use Telekinesis to pull their guns from their grasps, sending them flying behind me into a wall. I throw a hand up and charge an Electro Bolt. They all look in confusion at each other, looking for a clue as to what they should do.

I hit the group of 4 mercs with chain lightning Electro Bolt. The electricity arcs in between all of them breaking through all of their shields.

I activate Winter Blast and Concussive Force.

I rush closer using Aero Dash and use Winter's blast to freeze them to the ground.

Finally I raise a hand slowly, containing a contained concussion.

They all look at me wide eyed and fearful. The fear pierces me. But I know… I know that people are cruel and stupid. Show mercy, get stabbed in the heart.

I hit the group with a point blank concussion, turning them all into a fine red fog. I lower my hand and deactivate all my plasmids as my head spins. I sigh and walk into my apartment building. I slowly trudge up the stairs and into my apartment.

Alex sits, waiting on my couch. She smiles at me as I enter. Her smile falters.

"What happened?" She asks looking concerned.

I sigh and trudge toward my room. "Nothing. I'll be with you in a sec, okay?"

She nods. "Yeah… sure."

I walk into my bedroom and up to my weapon's locker. I open it and take a hypo of EVE from it. I roll up the bloody sleeve of my jacket and inject it slowly into my wrist.

I let the empty needle roll out of my fingers to the desk with a clatter. I remove my damp clothes and towel off before putting on a fresh pair of boxers and jeans.

I walk out to the couch and flop down onto it, resting my head in Alex's waiting lap.

She massages my temples and smiles down at me, her face slightly obscured by her bosom. "So… how was your day?"

I close my eyes. "Eventful, you?"

"Uneventful." She says with a giggle.

After a short silence I open my eyes to look at her. Her smile has faded and she looks at me seriously.

"We need to talk." She says.

I smile, trying to reassure her. "We can talk. I've thought you've wanted to tell me something. What's up?"

She sighs. "I've… I've been looking back on our relationship, on what's happened and stuff. I look back at the love, the compassion. And there's no doubt in my mind: I love you, more than anything I ever have. But…"

But?

Alex furrows her brow in frustration, like the next words are jumbling in lumps in her throat. I sit up and look at her in concern and in fear. I stroke her cheek with my hand. She holds it and presses her cheek into my palm. She finds the composure to continue.

"But. In my time with you, I've had more near death experiences than I ever had in my life. I need to be in a relationship where I feel safe. Don't take that the wrong way, I don't mean you can't protect me. I know you can. But that's the point. You shouldn't have to. You shouldn't have to need to. I can't live like this, where the fear of death happens so regularly. And because I love you, and I don't want to lose you… I'm going to ask you now: Will you come to Earth with me, and live out the rest of our days in safety and solitude, without mercenaries and war and death?"

My voice catches in my throat, and I slowly look away from her thinking intently. I don't know what to say.

I've always been an analytic thinker, which should be applicable now.

Her request is pretty much the life I had pegged out for myself before Rapture.

But that's a dream and a hope long since burned away. A new match has been lit, using the fires of a Mass Relay. My new life is one that I built for myself, just like I did two times before. The life I have pegged out for myself now is one that I can predict, one that I can control, to an extent. I know what will happen. As long as things go as I've believe they will.

I gulp and my throat moves. I can feel her eyes on me, waiting for a response.

This is going to hurt more than bullets and will be harder than putting the past behind me.

I turn to her. "Alex. I love you. And I don't want to lose you ever. But…"

I look down at my lap. I feel her hand gently lie on my cheek. I hold her hand in mine and keep my cheek pressed into it.

I lower her hand and look up at her. "But. I'm a mercenary. I'm a survivor. And I'm a tortured soul. There are things that I can't tell you, things that I want to tell you. I have obligations to the galaxy that I can't turn my back on. I am a mercenary. This is all I know. If I go to Earth… what will I do? I can't do that. I can't go back there."

She smiles understandingly. "Okay. Then I can't go either, because I can't stand to be away from you. But… I can't stand to put my life in danger either and I can't stand to see you put in a path of harm because of me. So… So I think we should just be friends."

I sigh and look down at my lap. Finally after a moment or two, I look up with a weary smile. "Friends with benefits?"

She smirks like it was a joke, but it turns to a thoughtful expression. "Sure."

I raise my hands over my head in victory. "Yay!"

She smiles, and I smile. We hug. I give her a friendly kiss on the forehead that lingers, perhaps, too long. She leaves the apartment, without another word.

And I break down.

Hot tears leak slowly from my eyes and down to my jaw, where they collect and fall down to my chest. The tears chill my skin, making me feel cold and alone.

I scowl in a rage, at myself not at her. I leap off the couch and flip my coffee table into the wall. There are things I want to tell her.

I run over to my dining room table and smash it to pieces with my bare hands. Splinters slice my exposed flesh but I feel numb to it. Things that have haunted me.

I charge down the hall into Nata's old room. Haunted my life and my dreams.

I immediately topple the rack of weapons next to the door, sending all the guns clattering to the floor. And I feel like that is why she's gone.

I charge toward the armor stands, towards my armor stand. I feel like this is why she left me.

I look at myself in the eyes, alloy skull to flesh. This armor, it represents Splicer. It is who I am and I hate him. I cry out in anger and start striking "myself" with tightly clenched and bleeding fists. This is the reason why I am cold and alone like I was in Rapture.

I keep punching until I hear a snap from my hand. I look at it and see my fingers are broken. I howl in frustration and drop to my knees. It is my fault. I can't love her anymore because I can't protect her. I feel useless, pathetic. I am useless and pathetic. She left me because I can't look back, because I can't accept my past. Because I am too afraid.

I feel someone touch me gently. I whirl around to face them causing the person's hand to lurch back.

Nelyna looks at me frightened and concerned.

I sob uncontrollably and shake my head. I want her to leave. I want to be alone.

She gets down to her knees next to me and tries to wrap her arms around me.

I shake her off and bury my face in my hands.

She is persistent and wraps her arms around me again, this time holding tightly as I try to shake her off.

I shake my head and sob. "Go… Just leave me alone."

But Nelyna stays.

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue…<strong>

"Now what's happening?" Captain Owen asks from Karlo's right.

Karlo Anasenko shrugs as he looks down the scope into Splicer's apartment. "The woman just left and now he's just staring at the door."

"I told you we should have spent the extra creds on a listening device." Calvin Johnson says sarcastically over his cigarette from the table near the back of the room.

Owen shoots him a glare which shuts him up.

Karlo flinches suddenly, drawing Owen's attention back to the apartment.

"What's happening?" Owen says anxiously.

Karlo looks up at him in confusion. "I don't know he's just breaking things."

"What?" Owen looks at the apartment in confusion. "Now what?"

Karlo sweeps his long black and greasy hair from his face and looks down the scope again. "I can't see him anymore. I think he went to another room."

"Use the thermal scanners; find out what room he's in." Owen commands.

Calvin sighs. "I told you. You can't use the thermals from this far away. You won't be able to see anything. There'd be too much interference."

"Wait, wait!" Karlo says suddenly. "Somebody else just came in. She's an asari. A pretty one too. She's looking around… she's going down the hall. I can't see her anymore."

Captain Owen sighs loudly as he picks at his thick greying beard. "Hm… Any ideas on what just went down?"

Calvin chuckles. "Maybe the chick told him she was pregnant."

Karlo grunts.

Owen scowls at Calvin. "Would you take this seriously?! This could make or break our reputation! There are 500,000 credits at stake!"

Calvin nods. "Sorry, boss, just trying to lighten the mood a little."

"Jin... Jin. Hello?" Owen says looking up at the dark corner of the room. "You have any thoughts?"

Jeong Jin Sung pushes himself off the wall, and moves into the light slightly. He mumbles in a voice that is devoid of passion, of any emotion whatsoever. "Can't say for sure. I'd say she told him something unfortunate. Something he didn't want to hear. In all likelihood she's acting the same way."

"Karlo, try to get eyes on the girl. Is she outside?" Owens commands him.

Karlo whips his hair back over his head and looks down the scope at the street. "Yeah, I see her. Jin's right, she looks bad."

Jin stares expressionless at his teammates through his long thick black hair. "What is she doing? Describe her actions."

Karlo looks down the scope. "She's paying for a taxi… She's shaking a little. She keeps looking around. Like she's lost or something. And she's crying." Karlo pauses for a second then starts chuckling. "Some guy just came up to her, probably to ask if she's alright. She screamed and yelled at him and he ran off."

Jin nods slightly. "They just left each other. Likely, she broke up with him. Though they still had feelings for each other."

Calvin snorts with laughter. "Sounds like a crappy TV show."

"There's probably a lot of tragedy behind the reason." Owen mumbles. "Farro… Suse!"

Susan Farro sits up from the couch suddenly. "Uh yes, Cap?"

"Go down there and try to talk to her." Owen commands. "Women usually trust other women better. Befriend her, try to find out exactly what happened. Report back here to me."

"I usually don't condone sexism, but sure thing, Cap." Susan says hopping off the couch and running out the door.

"Calvin, can you slow her down?" Owen asks him.

"Maybe…" Calvin says rushing to the window. He opens his omni-tool and types into it a little. "Karlo, did that do anything?"

He nods. "Yeah, all the cabs just flew away. Damn, she looks pissed."

Owen pats Calvin on the back. "Nice work."

"Susan just got to her." Karlo announces. "And… Yes. It worked, they're walking away together. C-Sec is trying to stop them… and they're going again."

"C-Sec? Why are they there?" Owen asks to nobody in particular.

"People are dead." Jin says simply, moving to the window. "They're investigating."

Owen shakes his head in disappointment. "I'm glad we paid that shitty amateur merc team to try killing Splicer. Now we got a measure of his ability. He's a fucking death machine. I have no idea how he did it but he blew those guys up! At least now we know what to expect… sort of. But still. C-Sec shouldn't have been here. They must've been tipped off."

Jin sniffs and combs a hand through his hair, pushing it back but only for it to fall back into place over his face. "Maybe. Or maybe they're just better than we thought."

Owen shrugs. "In my experience C-Sec hasn't had the best omniscience in the business. The fact that they knew about this is confusing. Especially since we worked so hard to keep the area deserted of people while the other mercs did their job. Which is to say: die."

Jin blinks slowly and leans against the window. "Oh well. When the time comes they'll be back here. And when that happens more people will be dead and we'll be far gone. But they deserve this."

"Who deserves what?" Karlo asks confused.

Jin cracks a tiny smile. "C-Sec. They deserve a head start."

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><p><strong>AN: Eyebrows raised? Curiosity piqued? Wait until next time. Things come full circle in the next few chapters. We're approaching the exciting and (of course!) the cliffhanger ending of Massive Shock Part 1! Just 3 more chapters to go!**

**And of course… I'm back and with a vengeance! As you all maybe know I was on a short vacation and I recently got back. It wasn't actually a vacation, or at least not one you are all familiar with. I was doing lots of hard and rewarding work this entire time, with plenty of fun mixed in. Over all I had a pretty good time. I learned a lot of useful skills and I got like… 4 shades tanner and I look pretty damn good. Whoops sorry… there goes that narcissism again. Sigh… It's nice to be back.**

**Though… to be honest? It also kind of sucked. A lot of just… crap happened. And it wasn't **_**just**_** crap. Every time shit happened it hit the fan in quantities that would make septic workers cringe.**

**Let's just say that this chapter update is ironically timed.**

**But… shit happens and I'm not the kind of person who lingers on it or complains about it. So overall I had a good time. I met and made friends with a lot of awesome people.**

**A little business and I'll let you guys go.**

**So here's the thing. Massive Shock part 2 is WAY too underdeveloped for me to even possibly consider releasing it yet. As I've said in the past, I don't write my chapters as I go, I write them ahead of time and give myself plenty of time to refine them. Take this chapter for example. I must've written this at least 4 months ago. Thing is that if I focused solely on my writing for the next few weeks and posted Massive 2 on schedule I'd still only have approximately 7 chapters done at the most and that's way too few in my opinion. I had up to chapter 16 when I started Massive 1.**

**The few chapters I've actually done for Massive 2 are such complete horse shit that I've decided to scrap them and start over. Which I still have to do. So to that end… it'll be delayed for a while. Hopefully not too long, but it'll definitely be a tangible stretch of time. I'll finish this story as scheduled and I have a very nice long teaser for the sequel that I'll release to whet your appetites for Massive 2 but like I said, it'll be a while before I'm putting out the actual chapters. In my stupidity, I've actually been focusing on writing Massive Shock part 3. I know, I know… You're probably like: WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?! GARAAARRRAAAAHHH! Well it's because writing is hard when I'm held within set boundaries AKA canon. I think I've expressed that before. I have creative freedom for part 3 because it takes place in the time lapse in ME2. So… sorry but that's just what's been happening. But don't get so mad about that though because… well… frankly?**

**Massive Shock part 3 is fucking capital "A" AWESOME! I've been working really hard on it and so far, it's 13 completed chapters of total epic literary greatness with twists, turns and surprises that'll make you hate this story but love it so damn much at the same time. I don't know how many chapters part 3 will be but I'm predicting around a total of… roughly 45 chapters. Amounting to approximately a… pretty damn huge volume of pages. I'll throw a guesstimate and say it'll easily hit about 1000+ pages by the time it's done.**

**Yeah. You heard me.**

**I don't know how long part 2 will be. I don't know what I'm doing with it or where I'm going with it but… all I know is that it starts immediately after part 1 ends and that it ends (almost) immediately before part 3 begins.**

**Oh and it'll have a middle in there somewhere too.**

**Sorry. I'm boring you again. But I'll just say this one last time. Sorry, but it looks like part 2 will be delayed for some time. Nothing excessively long. I'll work hard on it but I'm thinking it'll probably be delayed for a while. Anywhere from 1 to 3 months. Again, sorry but I take the quality of my work seriously and I want you to see that, to feel that. So far I think I've done well and if I just bull shit at you… well you've seen some chapters that weren't the best in the past and those were the horse shit chapters I wanted to finish and not actually work hard on, which is honestly how I feel about part 2 right now.**

**Anyways.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review telling me your thoughts on the situation because lots of stuff happened in this installment. I like to see what you guys think. Have a nice day, thanks for reading and I'll see you next week.**

**With love,**

**Mockingbird79**

**PS. Thanks for waiting so patiently for me to come back from my vacation. It was nice to get away from all the stress of work and school. It helped me gather my thoughts and from here on in my writing will only get better. So if you think about it… I did that for you. **

**With an double extra dose of love, **

**Mockingbird79**

**PPS. I'm at 175 reviews! It's more than I ever dreamed I'd have in a single story which is awesome and that's quite a milestone… But can I get 200? It's up to you guys and the anticipation is killing me. 200 is more than I thought I could ever get and it'd be awesome to get 200 reviews. I'd like… literally flip total shit.**


	35. Chapter 35 Happy Birthday

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

**A/N: As with every 10 chapters... or in this case 15... here's a little recap:**

**With the horrors of the Battle of the Suns passed and with my mysterious recovery, I found myself back in the arms of my friends. A party was held for my return from the brink of death and during the party I discover my feelings for Alex with the help of Vaga.**

**After that I am obligated to do a job for the Shadow Broker, discovering the involvement of one Sam Keppler the discoverer of the mysterious drug Four-D-Four-M. During the job, I battle a Blue Suns operative named Jada, a young steroid enhanced Omega street urchin. After the mission, she arrives at my home and asks to join my team.**

**I decide to include Zero in this team, who has been fired from his job at C-Sec for helping me through my trial. We go on several missions, but we are soon confronted by a new enemy: The Legion. The Legion, a relatively new mercenary group are led by Legate Hadrian Titanus Trajan. Trajan had managed to infiltrate the lives of many people all to get closer to me.**

**He and the Legion were hired by Cerberus to acquire some of my blood for testing. Fortunately Jada, Zero, and I manage to take them down and turn them into C-Sec.**

**Many months later, I take a day out of my hiatus to visit Ambassador Udina, who informs me that Columbia and therefore Rapture have never existed, meaning I didn't travel through time like I originally thought. I traveled to an entirely different universe. Was that the case the first time as well? Was my hope to see my family and friends again impossible?**

**Afterwards I take my appointment with the Consort who digs through my mind, yielding very few results Then I return home despite an assassination attempt only to be dumped flat on my ass by Alex. This is the worse birthday of my life.**

**Alright. That wasn't a little recap, that was a long one, but to be fair lots of stuff happened in the last 10 chapters, not to mention it's been 15 chapters since I last did a recap so… Time for the chapter 35! Part one of Massive Shock coming to a close and it's coming time for the events of Mass Effect 1! **

* * *

><p>"<strong>Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."<strong>

**~John Lennon~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 35: Happy Birthday<strong>

**3:13 AM December 20, 2182**

* * *

><p>I wake on my couch in Nelyna's arms. She cradles me like a child, my head pressed against her chest, her steady breathing dulled by sleep.<p>

Without moving my head, I raise my hand and rub at my sore and slightly swollen eyes. Was it just a dream?

I see my overturned coffee table. No. God… why?

The best thing that ever happened to me is in a different part of my life now. I can't believe I'm not Alex's boyfriend anymore. The idea of not being there… that hurts more than Incinerate.

She said that she can't be with me because I put her life in danger. And that makes me feel even worse. She has her reasons and even though I haven't worked in months and she's been relatively safe that doesn't make the past go away. How many times has she almost died as a direct consequence to my actions? The Battle of the Suns was directly my fault, but she doesn't know that, no one does. Dalarian almost killing her was definitely my fault, that one is probably the main reason. I told her then that I wouldn't ever let anyone hurt her and that is a good a reason as any. I mean, why should I have to? Why should I have to protect her? She said that. She said that I shouldn't have to need to protect her. But I need to. Because I love her and I put her in danger. Even the other night, assassins tried to kill me but they came here to my apartment building where Alex was. She was in danger but she didn't even know it. I won't tell her that one. That's just pushing it.

I sniff. No more tears to cry I guess.

Nelyna takes a deep intake of breath, makes a slight noise and shifts slightly but remains in the same positioning, my head resting on her chest and my arms around her lazily, one resting on her thigh and the other pinned under her waist and hanging lazily off the end of the couch.

Her hands move slightly on my head and neck, pulling me in tighter and stroking at my hair. Funny. She's comforting me even while she sleeps.

I think I might still be a mess if Nelyna didn't come or left like I asked her.

I close my eyes and listen to Nelyna's heartbeat. Her skin feels very hot but not unpleasant.

…

After what feels like an eternity, Nelyna shifts again. Her hands slip from my head.

I sit up and get off the couch.

I walk very slowly to the kitchen and start making some tea. I don't think I've ever felt this exhausted. I sniff.

After the tea is done, I take a seat on a stool and drink it slowly. It tastes bland and flavorless even though I put more tea leaves in than normal. It's still too hot and it burns my mouth, but I hardly feel it.

After the cup is empty, I take the tea pot and start drinking out of that. After that's empty I trudge into my armory and start picking things up off the floor.

I look at my scarred knuckles. Where did the blood go?

Nelyna must have washed them after I healed. I can hardly remember that was all a blind blur.

I lift the gun rack up and reposition it against the wall. I start picking up my guns one by one and placing them in my cradled arm.

After they're all off the floor I start placing them back on the rack. I sniff continually as I work.

Odd. I thought I'd feel worse. I guess losing a love isn't as bad as people make it seem. I mean, it's not like she's dead. Oh God, don't think that… you're getting all misty again. I'll still see her. Maybe things will start up again. I mean I still have feelings for her. She still has feelings for me.

I sniff.

Alex is my soul mate. We'll be together. Till death do us part? But that's the reason she left me.

I sniff.

I place the last handgun onto the rack and walk over to my armor stand with a rag. I absently start wiping off the bloody circles made by my fists from the armor.

I don't feel as bad as I thought. Yeah… I guess this isn't so bad. You were just being melodramatic, Rob. Heh… It's like when you asked that one girl out and she said no. It didn't feel as bad as you thought right? In fact it was liberating.

I smile very slightly; the smile doesn't show in my eyes though. I can feel it. I sniff and drop the towel on the floor.

I walk over to my desk and take a seat. I didn't notice this but a metal case sits on it.

I flip the latches and open it. I grunt at the sight of rows of hypos filled with green Keeper blood. Fresh ADAM, courtesy of Jada. I take one out and place it on my desk. What should I do with it? I got enough EVE. I don't have any ideas for plasmids or tonics… I'll save these for a rainy day.

I place the hypo back in the case and set it on the floor.

I place my elbows on the desk and rest my chin on my interlocked fingers. I sniff.

I don't feel like sitting around. It's my birthday. Every year in Rapture, I would go out and save a Little Sister before I drank until I went blind. Or did I just pass out?

I stand and walk into my bedroom. I put on a pair of socks, a pair of Converse, and I pull on a t-shirt.

I grab a leather jacket and I start toward the door. I stop and stare at my reflection in the mirror on my closet. Yeesh, I look awful.

I head into the bathroom and restyle my hair before leaving. I throw on my jacket and head out the door. Before I go, I leave a note for Nelyna telling her that I went out. Just in case she wakes up.

I walk out of the deserted building, my hands buried in the pockets of my jacket.

I walk slowly, not really knowing where I'm going. I stare at the ground as I walk lost in thought.

This has been an eventful year. One year since I came here to Mass Effect. And look what I've accomplished!

I made friends.

Bought an apartment.

Discovered ADAM again.

Made millions.

Killed dozens.

Made enemies with the Blue Suns and Cerberus.

I became famous.

I met my soul mate.

And I got dumped.

I got lots done. Yay for me.

"HELP!" I hear somebody scream. My head shoots up and I stop and I look around for the source of the screaming. I look down the alley to my left, at the woman screaming. I now realize that the person must have been screaming already and I was too distracted by myself to hear her. She must have just saw me as I passed.

The woman is human and being assaulted by a black haired man of considerable stature. He covers her mouth with his hand and tears at her dress.

My eyes widen and fury mounts in my body. I charge down the alley and toward the man.

He doesn't notice me, his eyes locked on the woman's exposed body. I tackle the man around the waist, tearing him away from the woman. I land on top of him and before he can get up or retaliate against me I drive my elbow into his temple. His head snaps back and his eyes glaze over but he remains conscious. I roll him onto his back and keep his arms pinned against the ground with my knees. I start punching him repeatedly.

I throw a right cross into his face, rotating my whole body adding centrifugal forces to the blow. I repeat the process with my left fist. Then my right. Then my left. Then my right. Then my left. Again and again and again.

I forget about everything. Everything around me turns to a white blur. I keep striking, trying to paint the blur red.

I feel a hand place nervously on my shoulder.

I whirl around to deliver an elbow to the new attacker. I stop myself inches from the woman's face, her eyes wide with shock. I realize my face is twisted in rage. I feel the rage coursing through me. I take a deep breath and calm myself.

The woman jumps back in fear from me, holding the torn material of her dress up to cover herself.

I stare at her in shock. I'm not me anymore. I can't let something so small as a breakup to change me so much. I've never lost control like this.

I lower my arm and look down at the man. He's unmoving, his face mangled. His mutilated eyes hang open slightly, staring blankly straight up. I killed him. He's dead.

I cover my mouth with my hand. "God…"

The woman places her hand on my shoulder again. "It's okay. You were angry. He was evil and you saved me. If you hadn't come…"

She starts to sob. I stand slowly. I turn away from the dead man. I remove my jacket and hand it to her, averting my eyes. She puts it on at zips it up to the top.

I place my hands on her shoulders and turn her away from the corpse.

We walk out of the alleyway. I still do not meet her eyes. I can feel them on me. What they convey? I cannot say for sure. Admiration? Gratitude? Respect? Fear? Contempt? I can't say. I don't want to see.

I turn to continue walking in the direction I was headed before. I mumble some nonsense to her about how I was sorry about losing myself and that she can keep the jacket.

I start walking again staring at the ground again. I breath slowly and steadily, equal in pace to my walking. I continue until I find myself at the Presidium Junction, where the Zakera Ward connects to the Presidium. Should I go to the Presidium? Or should I just turn around and keep going until I hit the other end?

I'll keep going onto the Presidium.

I step into the waiting tram and I press the button for it to go. It takes a second which confuses me. Did somebody else come in with me?

I glance over my shoulder and find that the woman whom I had saved is standing there in the tram staring at me. Was she following me?

She smiles. "Where are you going?"

I remain silent for a time. "Nowhere, really."

"Can I come too?" She asks smiling.

I laugh a little. I didn't think I was capable of laughter again. I nod.

She steps closer and stands next to me rather than behind me.

She looks at me and holds out a hand to me. "My name is Samantha Song, but you can call me Sam."

I look at her for a second before shaking her hand. "I'm Splic-… Robert. My name's Robert."

She smiles. "Can I call you Rob?"

I smile. "Yes. You can."

Sam smiles and looks out at the Citadel. She doesn't seem to recognize me, which is strange. Every time I go out people are waving, asking for pictures and autographs. I hate it. This is actually quite refreshing.

I didn't really notice before but she's very pretty. She's tall, not as tall as me but far taller than Alex who's really short now that I think about it. She's blond and has long silky looking hair that hangs down to her mid back. Her sky blue eyes are accentuated by her dark makeup which is smeared slightly. She has a thin face with prominent cheekbones and a gentle curve of her nose. Her lips are full and her mouth a little pouted. Her curvaceous body isn't accented by my black leather jacket, but her white dress compliments her strong looking calves. Her shoes dangle loosely from her fingers.

She stares at the Citadel, oddly distant.

I frown. "Are you alright?"

She looks back at me, her smile fades. "Yeah. I'm fine. I was just caught off guard. I wasn't prepared."

My frown deepens. Something about her rubs me the wrong way. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

She stares at me confused. "No I don't. Should I?"

I shrug. "Probably not. Are you new to the Citadel?"

She nods. "Yes I just got here."

The tram slows to a stop and we step out and start walking, in no particular direction.

"Well, why are you here?" I ask. "Everyone is here for something, it seems."

She shrugs. "I just wound up here. Know what I mean?"

My eyes dart to her. She can't mean… "Not really."

She shrugs. "Whatever. I never thought I'd end up in a place like this though. It's really beautiful here. It's like a dream."

I'd think she'd consider this a nightmare. What kind of dream starts with an attempted rape? I cough awkwardly. "Uh, so you don't know your way around well?"

She shrugs. "Just from what I remember. I know major places. And if I ever get lost, I have Avina to help me."

My eyes dart to her again. From what she remembers? Am I going nuts?

She notices me staring and looks at me confused. "What?"

I look away from her quickly and fail to think of something to say.

She sighs and places her hands on my arm and rests her head on my shoulder as we walk.

I look down at her nervously, almost angrily. I don't know why that pisses me off. Maybe because I just broke up with Alex a few hours ago? But she doesn't know that. I roll my eyes.

I give her the satisfaction by bending my arm slightly.

We continue to walk in silence, uncomfortable for me, comfortable for her most likely, until we find ourselves… Here we are.

I stop abruptly taking her by surprise.

I walk over to the edge of the railing and take a seat at the edge, my legs dangling over the water. Here I am. Back to where it all started. I came out, at this exact spot.

I swing my body out from behind the railing so there's nothing holding me back from falling in the water. I lean over and stare at the inky blackness of it. It's so clear during day cycles…

"What are you doing?" Sam asks confused.

I glance at her. "This is my stop. It's been nice chatting but I'm going to stay here. It was nice…"

I trail off as she takes a seat next to me, unbearably close.

I sigh.

I look back at the water.

After what feels like ages the day cycle begins, with a dim luminescence.

I look up at the ceiling. Must be 6. I should head home. I'm a gentleman so I'll escort Sam home before I head back. I also need to speak with the Consort today so I think I'll join Nelyna as she goes to work.

I liked this time out. I should walk places more. I'm not sure how I feel about the company though.

I pull myself out from the edge of the lake and back behind the railing. I stand and stretch. Sam notices me move suddenly and she joins me.

I sigh. "I need to get home. I'll take you home first. Where do you live?"

She looks around. "I don't have a home."

"… So you literally… Just got here?" I ask in confusion.

She nods. "Yeah, pretty much."

I sigh. "Do you have any money?"

She shakes her head, not seeming to be bothered by that.

"Don't you have any family here?"

She shakes her head.

"Nobody? No friends?"

She smiles. "I have you."

I cover my face with my hands and groan loudly.

She places a hand on my shoulder and kisses me on the cheek. "I had fun. Maybe I'll see you again sometime."

I look up from my palms after a second and she's gone.

I look around and around. No sign of her. Odd. So very odd.

I sigh and start walking home.

**6:21 AM December 20, 2182**

I enter my apartment, closing the door behind me. The light shines brightly through the window.

"Cloves." I whisper. "Blind the windows."

"_Yes, sir."_ He whispers back.

The window darkens bathing the room in darkness.

I tip toe toward my bedroom, checking the couch as I walk.

Nelyna is still there sleeping.

I stop and stare at her.

She's really beautiful. I don't think I ever noticed before. Actually she's sort of stunning.

Wow Rob. Haven't been single for 24 hours and already you're looking through your alternative options for romance. I scoff. Pig.

I walk over and scoop Nelyna up from the couch smoothly. She stirs slightly but continues to sleep.

I carry her into my room and lay her on the bed, covering her in the heavy sheets and blankets.

I walk back out into the main room and take a seat on the couch which is warm.

I sit quite still for what seems like hours but what is actually seconds.

Alex. I can't get her out of my head. I need to see her again.

No! You can't!

I know I can't go to her now. It would seem like I'm begging. But I need to see something again.

Oh! I have an idea.

I rush into my armory and grab my helmet off my armor stand. I carry it back into the main room and I place it on my coffee table.

I open my omni-tool and establish a remote connection with it.

I scroll through the photo albums on my omni-tool to the more recent pictures, mostly of me and her.

I smile at the memories. My eyes are getting moist.

I turn off my omni-tool before tears start falling. Too late.

I wipe them away with my hand.

Damn.

She was right though. I do put her in danger. Maybe now that I'm single, my enemies will overlook her. Of course I'd have to go public with that information. And I don't really want to do that. But I should. To throw would-be attackers off her trail maybe I should be like:

"We ended on awful terms." I say out loud intentionally in a stentorian voice. "I couldn't hate her more and love her less. The spark was gone. I have no feelings for her. Alex Silva loved me no more and I loved her no longer. We parted ways in a violent manner. I couldn't have been more of an ass about it. She was cool but I was a big ol' cry baby and I stole her watch and I broke it."

Of course that would spark controversy. People would think I'm a detached prick, but maybe they wouldn't see Alex as a bargaining chip and they'd leave her alone.

I sniff.

It is better this way. She's right. Now she's in far less danger. Everyday dangers like disease and cars and spontaneous combustion are still prevalent but now maybe the Blue Suns and Cerberus will leave her be. Oh and the Legion. Can't forget them. Speaking of which they haven't done anything. They're still around and thriving but they haven't come after me.

Frankly I don't think they're really my enemies. Just two people on opposing sides of two opposing factions. No real feelings against one another, just the wrong ties. Them to Cerberus, me to me.

Here I am, getting side tracked again. Alex. Focus on that.

She's safer now. It's true. But she's still a target, no doubt about that. And if my enemies go after her I'll still try and protect her. And if that happens maybe she'll see that no matter what she'll be in danger and then she'll be like:

"Oh, Splicer!" I say in a falsetto voice. "I see now that I was wrong. No matter what, our love will never be broken! And because of that, I'll always be in danger!" I switch to a stentorian voice. "So baby… Let's be in danger together!"

I make kissy noises which causes me to laugh. I'm on an emotional high right now.

I sigh. I think I've made my peace with it. And hey! She said we could be friends with benefits! I laugh.

The door to my bedroom opens and Nelyna comes out looking confused and concerned. "Splicer?"

I lean over and smile at her from the couch.

She sighs in relief and rushes over to me.

She stops once she sees my pleased and happy expression. "What's the matter?"

I frown slightly. "Nothing."

"You're smiling." She says in confusion. "You were miserable earlier."

I shrug. "I thought it over. I've come to terms with my break up."

She looks at me impressed. "Wow. You must've done some rough thinking."

I shrug again. "This and that. How did you know that Alex and I had broken up?"

She sighs and takes a seat next to me. "I passed Alex on the stairs coming up. I tried to say hi to her, but she ran right passed me crying her eyes out. I knew something must've happened between you two. I came up here saw all the broken stuff. Honestly at first I thought you two got in an argument or something. Then I found you in the back room and… well I kind of pieced it together."

I follow the short tale with a fascinated attention. I nod. "I see. Well… alright."

A short pause follows.

"Hey," Nelyna says somewhat curiously. "Did you know that you start glowing when you cry?"

I smirk. "Yeah I know that. Only when I cry really hard though."

"Why?" She asks.

"It's the plasmids. I have one called Rescue that I don't really have a use for anymore. A side effect of it is that it can be affected by intense emotional states." I explain. "So when I'm really sad, I activate it unknowingly."

"Rescue, eh?" Nelyna asks. "What does it do?"

I shrug. "Nothing particularly useful anymore. Hey listen, I need to speak with the Consort today she's expecting me. Can I come with you to work?"

Nelyna looks at me taken aback. "Uh… sure. I'll have to head home first to shower but then we can go."

I shrug. "Just take a shower here, I don't mind."

She hesitates but nods. "Alright. I'm almost late for work anyways."

I look at my omni-tool. Wow 6:45 and "almost" late for work? The Consort runs a tight operation.

I rest my head back and stare straight up at the ceiling. Hm… Maybe I should get a tattoo. I've always wanted one. What should I get?

I start laughing a little.

Wow, Rob. You're such a dick. You sure got over Alex pretty quick.

If you knew me at all you'd know I wasn't over her, Rob.

Hell, I know you better than anyone. But seriously, how can you justify that?

What? Thinking of what kind of ink to scar myself with? I'm trying to _stop_ thinking about her!

I see… Sorry.

No problem.

You're going crazy.

I know.

I sigh.

Funny, all I can think about now is Sam. Who was she? So mysterious. Something about her was familiar in some way. Almost like looking through a mirror or something. But she said things that didn't make sense. While talking to her I almost thought that she was like me. You know: Transuniversal. But then I realized that was bull shit. What are the chances of two people getting sent to the same separate universe on the same day a year apart? Pretty slim, I think.

I sigh and cross my arms.

I start humming some random tune and Nelyna reenters the room.

"Ready?" She asks.

I nod. "Yeah. I need a jacket, just a sec."

I hop off the couch and walk past her into my room. I grab a random jacket from my closet and put it on before rejoining her in the main room of my apartment.

We head down to the lobby in relative silence. I busy myself by fiddling with my omni-tool as we walk. A year with this thing and I still don't know how to work it very well. I know basic stuff but I'd love to learn how to do like an Overload or Incinerate or something… On second thought? I think I'd have too much power then.

As if there was such a thing.

We enter a cab and start traveling to the Presidium.

I shut off my omni-tool after a moment or two and stare out the window at the Citadel. I sigh quietly. Jeez. I sure sigh a lot. I'm worse than Kif from Futurama whenever he's around Brannigan.

I feel something on my leg.

I look down at Nelyna's hand on my thigh before looking up at her. She looks at me kindly, smiling slightly.

I smile back. "Nelyna, I want to thank you for sticking around last night. I know that I wouldn't be as calm or anything as I am now without you."

She smiles. "Don't mention it. I know you'd do it for me."

I smile and take her hand in mine. I give it a gentle squeeze before releasing it and staring out the window again at the Serpent Nebula as we pass. I sigh.

The cab lands shortly after near the Consort's Chambers. We exit and enter together. The Acolytes are here but no clients, thankfully.

Nelyna nods at the stairs. "If she's expecting you go on up. I need to get changed."

I nod and she leaves. I walk slowly to Sha'ira's room, getting odd looks from a few Acolytes as I walk. Something on my face?

I enter her room and she is sitting at a table in the corner of the room.

She smiles a smile so slight it hardly shows. "Splicer. I'm glad you returned. Please sit."

I take a seat across from her and lean in, nervous about what she'll tell me.

Sha'ira sighs and her smile fades. "This isn't easy for me to admit. But I'm sorry Splicer. You are the first person who came to me, whose needs cannot be met."

I frown. "What do you mean?"

She frowns, appearing clearly guilty. "You wanted understanding. You wanted to be understood… I'm sorry. But even after hours of searching your brain and your soul, and near constant meditation since then up until now, I am unable to understand you."

My heart sinks and I stare at her in further confusion. "But… You said that… We melded. Shouldn't you have been able to understand me in seconds? And you did it once before already! What's different from this time?"

She nods. "Yes, this is why this confuses me so. The first time we melded, your mind was clouded and tangled, easy to discern and find that horror in your mind. But now it is clear and I could not unravel it. Do you remember much from the melding?"

I shake my head. "Not really. I hardly remember a thing. Other than this odd feeling while it was happening, like something in my skull."

She smiles. "You haven't melded much then. True, I should have been able to see what it is you are and understand what it is that you see yourself as in a matter of seconds. However, even minutes in, I could not untangle the threads that weave your mind. You are not an asari. You could not comprehend the mind like we could. Most minds are like a neatly woven ball. The threads can be read, easily identified. They are evenly spaced, easy to weave. When most people have problems the problems leak out, through the spaces in the weave of the mind. This is how I read you more easily last time. I simply pieced it together from the remnants of your horror. Most people's minds are easy to pluck, to clarify. Yours is different. It is of a different pattern, of a different material. It is woven another way. It is dyed a different color. It is like nothing I've seen."

Cryptic similes! I hate them! "So you couldn't learn anything."

She shakes her head. "All I could discern is that you have undergone trauma that nobody else could understand and that you are in an emotional hell and that you are very angry that you cannot even understand yourself."

"I already knew that!" I exclaim angrily.

She sighs. "I am sorry. For me to read the heartstrings of your mind I would have to weave myself into your mind. Your will is unbending. I spent hours trying to see a way to read your mind. I tried. But I failed. Yours is a mind truly odd."

I roll my eyes. Great. I waited 10 months for this? What did I learn? I got me an "Oddly woven ball" and the will to hold it together. So apparently I'd make a good Green Lantern. I sigh and stand. "Thanks for trying."

I exit her room and leave the Consort's Chambers in a fury.

I stand outside the building, breathing in the cool air.

After a short while I head to a cab terminal and ride it home. I spent a whole year here and I haven't learned anything new about myself. If anything, I got more shit going on in this… I pound on my head with my fist… stupid thing than I did before.

The cab enters my building and I quickly exit and head back to my apartment. I trudge slowly down the hall to my apartment door. I take it slow, opening the door with absolutely no goal in mind.

I walk into my apartment and straight to my room. I toss my omni-tool, credit chit, and pistol haphazardly on my desk.

I strip my jacket and shirt off myself and toss them lazily into the closet in a jumbled heap.

I remove my shoes and socks without sitting down and toss them in there as well. I'm normally very neat. This is my way of showing rebellion. Throwing my stuff in my closet.

I sit on my bed and bury my head in my hands. I run my hands through my hair a few times before standing and moving to the bathroom to take a shower.

Worst.

Birthday.

Ever.

**Epilogue…**

Susan Farro walks away from Splicer quickly, the zippers of his leather jacket clinking as she runs.

She ducks into an alley and immediately raises a hand to her ear.

"Owen." She says urgently. "I just got away from him."

"_And? How'd it go?"_ He asks eagerly.

"Not good." She says with a grimace. "He fucking killed Karlo! And I tried really hard to get him to want to sleep with me, I did! But he was acting strangely and I didn't know what to ask him."

"_He must be fucked up if you couldn't talk to him."_ Owen responds. _"And fucking Karlo! Shit… just come back to the hideout, we need a new plan."_

"Roger." Susan responds. She checks to see if Splicer had gone which he had. She sets off for her team's hideout.

**A/N: All in all I liked how this one turned out. I liked it over all. Anyway. Here's to two more chapters.**

**Thanks for reading, and I'll see you again next week.**

**Mockingbird79**


	36. Chapter 36 Enter a New Stage

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

"**Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."**

**~Confucius~**

* * *

><p><strong>Ch. 36: Enter a New Stage<strong>

**3:15 PM January 3, 2183**

* * *

><p>I duck under the biotic attack thrown by one of the hitman.<p>

Quite a pickle I'm in now. Another odd job offer and it turns out to be another assassination attempt. Great. I did background checks, scoped out the mission site beforehand, and I even sent Jada to tail my employer. Everything checked out. And yet? Another assassination attempt. Not just any assassination attempt either. They sent three skilled biotic assassins to do us in.

I press my back against the low metal wall, Jada next to me.

"These guys are quick!" She exclaims at me, her voice slightly excited by the action.

Recalling the Spider Splicers, Houdini Splicers, and Geth Hoppers, I shrug. "I've seen faster."

She rises to a stand out of cover to fire her shotgun but is almost immediately blasted by a trifecta of biotic Throws.

Jada's shotgun flies out of her hands and she herself flies backwards into a wall leaving an extremely sizable dent. She lays unmoving on the ground for a short second before stirring slightly. She's probably unconscious or something though I knew something like that wouldn't kill her.

I glance over at Zero who's pinned down by heavy biotic attacks.

I can't get out of cover, these guys are good. I have to stay behind cover and still take them out… I know!

I take my Gun Mounted Camera attachment from my belt and stick it on my rifle. I put it in a blind fire position over my cover and switch to Gun View.

My Detective Mode lenses snap down and blacken my vision momentarily. After a short second my vision restores but instead of showing me a perspective from my field of vision, I'm looking through the GMC attachment. First time I've used this… it's a little weird and it'll take some getting used to.

I use the laser sight to aim at a target one of the three black and green armored assassins who are still attacking us with biotic attacks. I turn my gun to point the laser at him but the sudden movement makes me very dizzy and nauseated. Okay… slowly.

I slowly rotate my gun until the laser is on the hitman, who is oblivious to it because his focus is on Zero.

I fire the gun slowly three times at the hitman. Each shot blinds me for a split second. The first shot is absorbed by his shield, the second breaks the shield but blocked by a barrier, the third eradicates the biotic barrier.

I angle the gun slightly so it points at his head. Say goodbye. I fire it and the Anti-Armor round pierces his helmet and ricochets off the wall behind him to some unknown position.

The other two assassins are taken by surprise, letting up on their attacks momentarily. I quickly switch off Gun View, my lenses disappearing back into my helmet. The sudden change in perspective makes me dizzy again but I push past it, dropping my assault rifle and drawing my shotgun.

I shoulder it and blast one assassin away while the other is taken down by a subsequent blast from Zero.

I vault over the cover and point at Jada as I walk. Zero nods and rushes over to her to make sure she's okay.

I kneel next to one of the assassins. A small spiral dragon insignia adorns his armor shoulder. Crappy armor, poor shielding, low caliber weapons. They're amateurs so I'd say these guys are the only ones in their group. They were worthy adversaries though, all biotic and all possessing lightning quick reflexes. Not quick enough obviously.

"Splicer!" I hear Zero shout behind me. I straighten and look at him. He's kneeling next to Jada with her helmet off. "She's not breathing!"

Oh shit!

I run over to them, pulling my helmet off as I run and tossing it to the side. I slide onto my knees next to her and take her head from Zero. I place my ear near her slightly open mouth and listen… Nothing. No!

I pop the clasps on her chest plate and remove it. I place my ear against her chest and listen… Fuck!

I tilt her head back, opening her airways. I take a deep breath and fill her lungs with oxygen. I keep an eye on her chest to make sure the air is getting there. No obstruction. She didn't choke.

I straighten quickly and start performing chest compressions, slightly faster than one per second. I stop at thirty and give her mouth to mouth again. What's wrong with her? Her heart just stopped?

I press my ear against her chest again, listening. I close my eyes and wait… She's got a pulse! Just super slow!

"I need to get her heart beating faster." I say quickly to Zero.

"She's still alive?" He asks sounding relieved.

I shake my head. "Barely and not for long. Quick think of something!"

"Uh. Um uh." He panics slightly pacing back and forth. "Try kissing her! I know that'd get my heart pumping."

I roll my eyes. "I just did mouth to mouth. I might as well have been kissing her. Besides she's unconscious, she wouldn't know if I was doing it or not."

"Uh, uh… Do you have a defibrillator?" He asks suddenly.

"No I don't…" Wait a minute. I look at my hands. I'm a human defibrillator! I know I shouldn't take ideas from iNfamous, but I'm out of options! Pulse heal time!

I zip down her jumpsuit to her belly button, keeping it covering her out of respect. I take a deep breath and activate Electro Bolt… Okay… Let's see if this works.

I place my hands on her chest, one hand near her right shoulder and the other underneath her left breast, and give her a quick low voltage charge.

She jerks but remains inert… Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck! I give her another shock, this one slightly higher in voltage… Still nothing.

"Dammit!" I curse. I lean over and listen to her heart beat. This time it isn't beating.

I rotate my head and press my forehead against her chest in anger. How the fuck did this kill her! I've seen her take sledgehammers to the skull and not die.

I wrap my arm around her head, the other wrapping around her back. I press her head into my chest and sob. Shit… Mother fuckers got one of us. Are you happy?! You bastards?!

Something suddenly unprecedented happens. Jada takes a sudden intake of breath.

I jolt back from her in shock, still cradling her. "Jada! You're okay!"

She stares at me in confusion. "What happened?"

"You're heart stopped." I say bluntly, knowing she can take it. "I don't know how but you were dead and now you're not!"

"I think I have a theory." Zero says sounding somewhat confused. "First off how you died, Jada. Biotics manipulate Dark Energy produced by electrical signals to Eezo in their spinal columns. And as we all know, Eezo and Dark Energy are extremely toxic and deadly. The combined attacks from all three assassins was enough Dark Energy to invade your nervous system and cut off electrical signals to your brain causing your heart to stop and for you to stop breathing. This is actually common in victims of attacks from asari matriarchs and such. After you died, Splicer held you and he started glowing. I can't explain that but somehow that cleared the Dark Energy from your body letting your brain work with your nervous system again."

Oh! I understand! "That glowing was a plasmid. It's called Rescue. It can be triggered by intense emotion."

"What does it do?" Zero asks me.

"It cleanses your nervous system of foreign contaminants." I say simply. That's pretty much what it does in a nutshell. For Little Sisters, whose internal ADAM Slug has formed a symbiotic bond with their nervous and digestive systems, Rescue invades their nervous system and severs the Slug's bond to her nervous system, killing it instantly and eradicating it from her system in a very gentle process. Only someone like Tenenbaum could've come up with something like that. Well now Rescue isn't totally useless, I suppose. Now I can clean people's nervous systems of Dark Energy from powerful biotic attacks.

"There you go." Zero says. "Your nervous system was pumped full of toxic amounts of Dark Energy, resulting in death. But Splicer's coincidental intervention cleansed your nervous system of contaminates. For what it's worth, Splicer, I would've mentioned this stuff earlier if I had realized it."

I smile at him and look at Jada who still looks rather confused. She looks at me and smiles wide suddenly.

"Intense emotion? Do you care about little ol' me?" She asks sounding flattered, mock punching my jaw.

I drop her unceremoniously, standing quickly. "Don't flatter yourself. I'm still emotionally challenged from my breakup."

She rolls her eyes and gets to her feet with Zero's help. "Keep telling yourself that if you want. I'll go with my explanation thank you very much."

Suddenly she looks down at her open jumpsuit. "When did that happen? Ouch! Why do I have burns on my chest?"

Suddenly embarrassed I turn away slightly scratching the back of my head. "I may have tried to defibrillate you a few times…"

Jada chuckles and zips up her jumpsuit. "Sure. I'll bet you were just taking it as an excuse to see me with my shirt off."

I feel my face heat up, not from embarrassment but from the activation of Incinerate. She jumps and raises her hands. "Okay, chill! I was just kidding!"

I roll my eyes, deactivating Incinerate as I do. I retrieve my helmet and guns while the others retrieve their things.

"Who were these guys?" Zero asks, walking up to the one dead merc who isn't blow to pieces.

I shrug. "Random assassins sent to kill me?"

"You mean kill us?" Jada asks sardonically.

Zero shrugs. "Well… I appreciated that you've been taking more missions recently on my behalf but I think we really should have some sort of screening process."

"Or maybe we should actually ask what the job entails." Jada suggests sarcastically.

"We did our homework for this one." I shrug. "Besides, I like the unpredictability of life."

I mean why wouldn't I? Come Mass Effect 1, I'll know exactly what'll be happening. I better milk these new experiences for all their worth. Jeez… two months into 2183 and ME1 hasn't started yet. I wonder when it will. I'll sure know about it when it happens I mean the Eden Prime attack is going to be big news.

We exit the storage facility and walk out onto the street. Odd… There sure aren't many people around.

I shrug and start heading home. I bid my teammates farewell as they head back to their respective homes. As I walk I pass a Galactic News terminal. I touch it as I walk by, turning it on and starting a news report, with no intention of stopping to listen to it. I always do that whenever I see them, I don't know why. Habit from ME2, perhaps?

I stop dead in my tracks when I hear two particular words from the terminal: Eden and Prime.

I rush back to it and lean in close to capture every word.

"…_an attack from an enemy, for now unknown. But experts speculate that the human colony was attacked by raiders or bandits from the Terminus Systems, as is common in colonies in the Attican Traverse. The System's Alliance has called for a public audience with the Council to discuss this issue and for now the System's Alliance representatives and the Council are not issuing statements on the issue. A rumor has spread that the attack involves geth, but no particular attacker has of yet been identified. The Eden Prime attack was absolutely devastating, however, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands and tens of billions of dollars in damage to the colony. The audience is scheduled for later this evening and is open to the public."_

It's started already! The Council audience is later today! That means Shepard is already on the fucking Citadel! Holy shit!

I break out into a run toward my apartment. I run into my building, up the stairs and into my apartment in a flash, everyone I pass become a faded blur as I run. Nobody's in my apartment, surprisingly.

I rush into the backroom and to my terminal. I've been thinking long and hard on how I would get into the events of ME1, and since I'm the Shadow Broker's go to guy, I would've figured he'd ask me to kill Fist. And if that happens, I'll have to either turn over the job to Wrex or request to work with Wrex on it. The latter I'd prefer.

I check the messages. Nothing new. My heart sinks. So does that mean I'm out?

I sigh in disappointment and walk into my bedroom. I remove my armor quickly, leaving it on the floor with my jumpsuit and walk into the bathroom for a quick shower.

Turns out it wasn't so quick. I've been showering for a while. Since I got to the Citadel taking long showers is my way of thinking. It's the closest thing I can get to walking in the rain.

Mass Effect 1 has started and is well into its story line. It's not too late for me to get in, the first meeting is later. But what can I do to get Shepard to recruit me before the day is over?

Garrus is no problem. Wrex is probably already after Fist. Tali is probably already ready for her "meeting" with Fist. How will I get in then?

"_Excuse me, sir."_ Cloves says, his voice echoing in my bathroom. _"But there is an unidentified somebody at the door."_

"Probably someone looking for an autograph." I say tiredly. "Could you ask them what they want, please?"

"_Of course, sir."_ Cloves responds.

"Thank you."

I shut off the shower and walk into my room discarding my towel as I go. I walk into my closet and select a pair of boxers and loose khaki cargo shorts. I toss them on my bed and I'm in the middle of picking a t-shirt when Cloves speaks up again.

"_Sir, the person has explained that she would like to request help from you, and that she will only speak to you in person." _Cloves says.

Normally I would but I learned today the dangers of letting people explain a mission to me in person. Usually it results in a pistol to the face or a knee to the groin. Neither of which work well against me. Quick reflexes, boxing, and a codpiece see to that.

"Cloves, can you ask the person to leave any weapons outside, please?" I ask him as I pull on my boxers and shorts and walk into the main room.

That run earlier got me thirsty. I walk into the kitchen and to my fridge. A rapid series of knocks at my door makes me jump with my hand on the handle.

"_I apologize, sir, but she has refused to relinquish her weapons and will no longer speak with me. If I had to make an assumption it must be rather urgent."_ Cloves says to me as I decide whether to drink Topari or Orange soda.

I grab a can of Topari and take a few sips of it. Urgent eh?

"Hello?" Whoever was knocking asks from outside. "Please let me in! I need your help!"

I frown… That voice sounds very, very familiar… Is that…? No…

I walk over to the wall panel and open the live feed from outside to see who's at the door. I then accidentally cover the screen with Topari that I literally spit from my mouth in surprise.

That's Tali'Zorah nar fucking Rayya! Why the fuck is she here?!

I take a deep breath and compose myself. I'm about to meet Tali. Oh my God oh my God!

I shake off the jitters and take a few more deep breaths. Doesn't work. I spasm in excitement again and dance about the small entryway.

A rapid knocking at the door makes me jump in surprise. Who could that be? Oh yeah. Calm down. Just see what she wants, Rob.

I press the button on the wall panel to open the door and Tali quickly rushes in, pistol pointed square at my face, and shuts the door behind her.

"Whoa!" I exclaim backing away, tossing my Topari away accidently. "What the hell?!"

"Are you Splicer?!" She demands from me, her voice firm but slightly afraid.

I nod. "Yeah just put the gun away!"

"Do you work for Saren?!" She exclaims, keeping the gun pointed at me. "If you lie, you're dead!"

Frustrated, I roll my eyes and disarm her of the pistol by turning it around and pulling it from her grasp. That was easier against someone with less than 5 digits. I toss it on the couch. "Just calm down. I don't even know who the hell Saren is. I'm freelance. I don't _work_ for anyone."

Tali… TALI… Oh shit this is really happening! Tali looks at me suspiciously. "How can I trust you?"

"Uh…" I think carefully. If memory and iPod can be trusted, then she's injured and on the run. Likely afraid. I have to give her a real reason to trust me. I look around… uh… "Okay. I am clearly unarmed." I gesture to myself. "You can have all the guns. I do anything, you don't like. You can shoot me." I use Telekinesis to pull her pistol back into my hand. I hold it out to her.

"You're biotic?" She asks snatching the pistol from me.

I don't have time for lengthy explanations nor does she so… "Sure. Please, have a seat."

I gesture to my couch. She reluctantly takes a seat, the pistol still in her hand and pointed lazily at me.

I take a seat in one of the armchairs nearby. "To set you at ease, I don't work for anybody. I go at my own pace. Currently I'm not affiliated with any major PMCs, businesses, or organizations. And I've never heard of Saren." Total lie. "How can I help you, miss…?"

"Tali'Zora nar Rayya." She responds curtly. Still doesn't trust me. Why would she? "You are connected to the Shadow Broker, are you not?"

I frown. "I've done work for him. Who told you that?"

"You don't need to know that." She responds harshly. Yeesh. "All you need to know is that I need to meet the Shadow Broker. I want to trade important information for protection. I got into contact with him and he's sending me to an agent of his, Fist, who'll set up the meeting between me and the Shadow Broker. I don't trust him."

"And you shouldn't." I respond with an approving nod. "The Shadow Broker can't be trusted. Neither can Fist."

"What makes you say that?" She asks suspiciously.

"Uh…" Say something witty! Don't let off that you know exactly how things will turn out more or less! "Why would you trust anybody with a body part for a name? Fist, foot, tongue, etc."

She chuckles. "Good point. But how can I trust you?"

"You haven't been on the Citadel long, you aren't tied to this place, and it's natural for you to not trust me. Though everyone who knows me, and has hired me, knows that my trust can be bought." I have absolutely no intention of taking any money from her. But I have to keep up this shell, or I'll look like a weirdo who somehow knows everything.

She shakes her head. "I can't pay you. What I need from you is a guarantee that you'll be my protection when I trade this information. The Shadow Broker will pay you."

I frown. "So you're asking me to be your protector, after you trade this information for protection."

"Exactly." She says nodding. "But I need your protection now. Saren is after me as well. You said your trust can be bought but I can't pay you now."

I frown further. "But you don't trust Fist or the Shadow Broker, so you want me to come with you to the meeting. For free."

"You're smarter than you look." She says. That supposed to be a compliment? People have said that before… Do I look stupid or something? Well of course I do, my hair isn't done yet so it probably looks stupid.

I run a hand through my damp hair pushing it back. I better put something in it soon or it'll get all frizzy. Then I'll look awful. "Tali… I can call you that right?"

"Maybe. Will you help me?" She asks hopefully.

"Maybe." I respond quickly. I then smile. I'm a good actor. I should try out for a play. "Whatever it is you've gotten yourself into it seems big… Sounds exciting… I'll help you on one condition."

"Name it." She responds quickly.

I smile. "You buy my trust with yours. If I help you, you tell me who sent you here and you show me the information."

She pauses eying me. "How do I know you won't kill the person who sent me here and kill me once you've seen the information?"

I smile, trying to reassure her. "First off, I'm still unarmed, and you have a gun pointed at me. If you show me the information right here then I'll work with you. And I need to know who sent you because I have a lot of enemies and they want to see me dead. It's a precaution to make sure this isn't some trap. You're not the only one afraid for their life."

Tali ponders this thought for a long time finally she nods. "Okay. I was sent by Dr. Chloe Michel. She knows your friend who knows you."

Nata. Nata used to go to Dr. Michel a lot. Damn. Dr. Michel has got connections. I nod. "Thanks. Don't worry, she's not an enemy. She's a friend and I'd never hurt her. Though I don't think I've ever met her. Shame. Anyways the information."

She nods and opens her omni-tool. "I found this on a geth I tracked and disabled. It's an audio file. Listen."

She plays it.

"_Eden Prime was a major victory. The Beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit." _I hear the pleased voice of Saren say.

"_And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."_ Matriarch Benezia adds.

The playback ends.

"The first voice was Saren." Tali explains. "It proves he was involved in the Eden Prime attack."

I nod. "I see. But what makes him so important?"

"He's a Spectre." She says simply. Thank goodness she didn't go on with some huge explanation. I'd have hated that. I already know all of this. Though my memory of everything is very fuzzy. My iPod has only given me general information so little things are hard to remember.

"That is big then." I mutter. "What about the second voice, the woman's. Do you know who she was?"

Tali shakes her head. "No. I don't know it."

"Well what about all this about Beacons, Conduits and Reapers?" I ask dreading a long response. "What's with all the cryptic names? Cloak and Dagger phrases maybe?"

She shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine. Though the Beacon is what they found on Eden Prime, only further implicating Saren's involvement in the attack."

I nod. "When's your meeting with Fist?"

"4 hours." Tali responds after checking her omni-tool.

I nod. "Okay, I'm going to get suited up. I have a quarian friend who comes here often, there's some top quality food paste in the fridge. Please help yourself, you must be starving. Don't run off now, remember I did agree to help and you have my word."

She nods reluctantly. "I won't… though… You mind if I'm in the room while you armor up? I don't fully trust you yet, I'm afraid you might try to contact somebody."

I frown and look down at myself. "I will be getting naked. You want to see me getting naked?"

Tali jumps slightly, her pistol forgotten on the seat next to her I don't know how long ago. "K-Keelah! N-no! That's not what I meant! I meant that I don't trust you! I mean-"

"Calm down." I say standing. "I won't try anything."

I walk over to my bedroom and grab my omni-tool I place it on the coffee table in front of her. I walk to the back room and disconnect my terminal from the wall. I carry it out and place it in front of her as well. "There that's all the stuff I could use to contact somebody. Please eat something. If you want you can come watch me change. Dinner and a show."

She chuckles, mood slightly lightened.

I walk to the back room. "I'll leave the door open so you can hear me."

I walk inside and grab a fresh under armor suit. I strip down and pull it on.

I start attaching my armor pieces to my body piece by piece until my helmet is all that remains. I walk over to my weapons rack and attach my weapons to my back along with EVE for my pauldron. I walk out to the main room and smile.

Tali is asleep on the couch, several empty food paste tubes lying on the coffee table. I clear them up and take a second to stare at Tali, creepy as that is.

Can't believe this is really happening. That's really her and I kind of secured a ticket to ME2. If and when Shepard comes to break up the "meeting" I'll be there to help. Now that I've heard the recording, I'm involved and he's smart enough to see that. Also worse comes to worse, I'll pull the "I was hired as Ms. Zora's protector and I never leave a job undone" line. Corny but it proves its point.

She must be exhausted. Nice to know she feels safe enough to sleep here. Maybe she trusts me. If she does then I must be good at convincing people of stuff. She went from gun in my face to asleep on my couch.

I scoop Tali up gently and carry her towards my room. I pause for a second and look down at her… Is she dead?

Oh nope. Just really out.

I take a second and ponder the fact that I'm in actual physical contact with Tali'Zora nar Rayya from Mass Effect 1. She's real, living, breathing, warm, real. I very gently bounce her up and down to test whether she'll fall through my arms and vanish and I'll wake up from some extremely elaborate dream… Nope. Real. Damn, she doesn't weigh much does she? Must be malnourished or something. She's pretty lean though. She must get a lot of cardio running from Saren's goons and geth.

I continue into my bedroom where I lay her in the bed and cover her with the sheet. I'll wake her in a few hours, she needs the rest. She's tall. Or at least taller than I would've imagined. She's still shorter than me by a noticeable margin, but I would've figured she'd be about Nata's height for some reason. Though in the game, Tali's a little shorter than Shepard… I wonder how tall Shepard is.

I walk out of my room quietly pondering it. If Garrus is a few heads taller than me, Shepard must be at least my height or maybe slightly shorter. Wrex is huge, no issue there. Maybe not Ramlok proportions but… This reminds me, I need to ask Wrex about Hirvio, he's his son after all. Wrex probably won't think much of him because he was abandoned and for all he knows, Hirvio is dead.

I take a seat on my couch and think. And think. And think some more. Until my head is swimming with thoughts all happening at the same time and I've entered a sort of Zen.

Geez. I would've thought this would take less thinking. I mean I already know this stuff. Sure my memory is fuzzy after 7 years and whatever, but I would've thought this stuff would come easy like clockwork… or… easy as something that isn't as complicated as clockwork… Anyways… Yeah! I used to think that when Mass Effect 1 came around, then things would happen just like in the game and I wouldn't need to think too much on it. But in retrospect that was an ignorant thought. I need to consider what my presence will do to the game. After all my actions were directly linked to Barla Von's death, the Battle of the Suns, the Legion, and a lot of little things I don't know about.

I rest my head in my hand. Whoops. Forgot to do my hair.

I stand and walk into my bedroom and quietly to my bathroom. I shut the door and go about restyling my dry and frizzy hair while humming to a random tune that came into my head. Hm… Legend of Zelda. Funny how that's the first one in my head. That game… Gets to you.

Suddenly I become super bummed.

I never got to play Skyward Sword…

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><p><strong>AN: Come on guys! You guys are killing me! 14 reviews left to 200! I know I'm sounding needy but I'm SOOO CLOSE! Ew… Pfft that was sort of funny you got to admit. Anyways…**

**Uh, once the story is over and done with I'm going to turn back the clock a little and re-do a couple of chapters I'm unsatisfied with, namely chapters 15-19. Uh… and maybe a few others. Those were total ass and I'm sorry for putting you all through that so I'm going to rewrite them from scratch. They won't be the same anymore, so get your fill of them if you want. But I wouldn't suggest that because they suck. Hm… Just looked over the rest of the Crisis multi-chapter series… I'm going to do some alterations to the whole thing. Maybe I'll make changes to the whole story. Wait and see I guess. Anyways…**

**Thanks for reading. I'll see you next week.**

**Mockingbird79**


	37. Chapter 37 Shepherded to Fate

**Mass Effect: Massive Shock**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Mass Effect or the BioShock franchises or any characters or property that BioWare or Irrational Games has staked claim upon. However I do own copies of the games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and BioShock and BioShock Original Characters I come up with are MINE to use and distribute.**

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><p>"<strong>In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."<strong>

**~Abraham Lincoln~**

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><p><strong>Ch. 37: Shepherded to Fate<strong>

**8:27 PM January 3, 2183**

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><p>I place my Topari on the desk next to the terminal and face the dummy that I set up in my armory. This is a monthly ritual of mine. Seeing as how my plasmids evolve over time, I like to see how they progress month to month. What I've seen over the course of the past 7 years is a slow but gradual growth in my power. It was faster at first, probably because I had far fewer plasmids and tonics. And in addition to the gradual growth, the horizons of my abilities continue to expand. With time I'll be able to do things I couldn't before, like being able to continually fire a jet of flame with Incinerate, the equivalent of Incinerate 3.<p>

Let's check my progress…

I raise my palm so I can see it and activate Detective Mode for my helmet.

I activate Electro Bolt. Cool I can see the electrical pathways in my body. It looks like the electricity originates from my spine and my heart. Each heartbeat creates a flare of light from my heart and spine and a wave of electrical light throughout my body. Though I'll never get used to the fact that I can see my own skeleton and stuff in Detective Mode, it's weird. Though a neat feature I had installed was the Climate Analysis Suite. Normally reserved for colonists and scientists, its purpose is to provide accurate recordings of the environment, from temperature to gravitational pressure, to atmosphere content, and it's even able to measure electrical buildup in more extreme climates.

I point my palm forward and I fire a full power blast from it at my metal test dummy. The bolt strikes its chest leaving a scorch and electricity arcing over its body.

My helmet measures 53 million volts. Damn good. Though it could be better. I'll try again. I blast it again, putting in more effort grunting loudly as I do.

53,232,000. Guess that's as good as I'm going to get for now. But that's still damn impressive. But I still can't believe it's barely enough to kill a man. Though I can put out over 53 million volts on a maxed out Electro Bolt, my amperes is incredibly low. Basically I can hit a target with an incredibly powerful blast for a fraction of a second. As opposed to lightning, which has a voltage in excess of a gigavolt and carries a current of 300 to 500 kiloamperes. In laymen terms, lightning has been known to strike with a voltage of 1 billion volts, maybe more with a current of 300,000 to 500,000 amps. And all it takes to kill a person is 10 milliamperes or 0.01 amps. And I've measured my current as somewhere in the range of 10 microamperes or 0.00001 amps… So unless I really juice up my plasmid power and hit someone for an extended period of time, even for a tiny bit longer, I can normally kill them. Of course this is really tough for me. And in theory, I need no more than 100 volts to kill someone as long as I use the right amount of amps. And I still haven't figured that out.

I sigh. I guess I should look into this more. If I knew more on electricity that'd be ideal.

I deactivate Electro Bolt and activate Incinerate.

I look at my hand first which is giving off 71 degrees Celsius or 159 Fahrenheit as is the norm… sort of.

I blast the dummy with a burst of flame, igniting its iridium form for a few seconds in a tempest of flame before fading with a small whoosh.

1260 Celsius that's… 2300 Fahrenheit even. Nice that's about the melting point of Iron and Manganese and plenty past the burning point of human tissue. Funny, never thought I'd get so good at chemistry. I always hated it in high school but it became a point of survival in Rapture so I had to learn it. And the Brain Boost tonic helped.

I activate Winter Blast and look at my hand and wait slightly as the thermometer on my HUD plummets.

-72 degrees Celsius that's about -97 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool. Literally.

My mask flips up and I take a sip from my drink with my other hand raised at the dummy. Ouch! That was a bad idea. The Topari froze to my lip.

I close my helmet and I freeze the shoulder of the dummy and my helmet measures -102 Celsius. Not bad. My goal is absolute zero though. It seems impossible but, hell, anything's possible. So I have… -170.15 Celsius to go still. I'm getting there. But -102 Celsius is satisfying by any measure. That's far colder than any temperature extremes ever recorded on Earth. Colder than a typical day on Mars even.

Hm… I'll test the Newton force of Concussive Force and an object thrown with Telekinesis.

I deactivate Winter's Blast and wait a second for my body to heal a little. I activate Concussive Force and hold the ball of pressure to my helmet. I can almost feel it through my helmet.

My helmet is measuring that the ball of pressure in my hand is exerting a constant force of 300,000 newtons, comparable to the nuclear blast wave created by the Little Boy nuke at Hiroshima. Holy fuck. I'm glad it's contained. I'd bet I could crack someone's head open with this thing.

I blast the dummy with a Concussive Force. Its free-swinging arms flail wildly as it's pushed by the concussion.

Interesting. It starts at 25,000 newtons, comparable to a bullet traveling through the air, when I first blast it. But in the first half second of flight it drops to about 1000 then it plummets quickly. So that's why it blows people up at point blank range. It's like getting shot with a giant bullet. But at larger distances it's like getting pushed by a giant hand. I know for a fact that I, if not most people, can generate more than 1000 newtons of force with a punch. I guess I'll have to let this one develop more.

I deactivate Concussive Force after my dizziness subsides then activate Telekinesis.

I pick up a 50 pound kettle bell weight with the power and hurl it at the dummy. It collides with its head with a bang before falling to the ground with a loud thump.

4800 newtons. Not bad. I'll get better in time with everything though. The drawback of this all is that my plasmids advance slower if I have more of them. Though Tenenbaum hypothesized that if I inject myself with pure unaltered ADAM, which is extremely dangerous might I add, that I'd get a permanent and dramatic growth in my power. I'm not willing to risk it though. I've seen what happens to people who take unaltered ADAM. Not pretty.

My helmet opens and I take a sip from my Topari and walk over to my EVE locker on the wall. I grab a hypo and boost up. I place the empty hypo on my desk. I like to save them. I had to get them custom made so they were pretty expensive. Waste not want not. How many should I take when I go on the Normandy?

Gosh I didn't even think about EVE and ADAM. I didn't even consider that. I won't have a ready supply unless I take a Keeper with me. So I'm going to have to take some ADAM with me along with enough EVE to last me a while, maybe… 27 hypos. If I run out then I'll make more with the ADAM I have. Hopefully Shepard won't mind my little science experiments.

I hear the door open and I look at Tali who looks around the room curiously.

"You're awake." I say pleasantly.

She nods. "Yeah… Did you blow a grenade in here or something?"

I frown. "No… why?"

"I hear what sounded like an explosion in here." She mutters glancing at the dummy. Only now do I notice the pistol in her hand. Cautious little quarian, isn't she? Though I don't blame her.

I chuckle. That'd be Concussive Force. "No. I didn't throw any grenades. It's good that you're awake, the meeting is in an hour or so, I was just going to wake you."

"Thanks for letting me rest here, by the way." She says gratefully. "I tried not to fall asleep but I was exhausted. To be honest I still don't trust you."

That kind of hurt, but in retrospect it's appropriate. I shrug. "That's alright. I don't expect you to trust me so quickly. Though if it means anything, I trust you. Besides, even if you tried to betray me or kill me or something… I think I could take you."

She folds her arms over her chest and cocks her hip to the side, clear signs she's either angry and indignant or being sarcastic. Either way I keep a neutral expression.

"Oh really?" She says. That's sarcastic.

I smirk. "Yeah. I think I could take you."

She shakes her head. "I have a shotgun you know."

I draw my own. "Me too. And I'll bet mine's better."

"I'll take that bet." Tali responds drawing her own shotgun and placing it on the desk and taking a seat.

I place mine on the desk as well, smug expression on my face. I'd like to see her beat Tyrannax's craftsmanship.

She picks up my shotgun examining it. "Hm… No ID number or logo… This is custom made isn't it?"

I nod with a smug smirk. "Sure is."

She continues to examine it. "Hm… No stock or mods. Low yield heat sink. I'd say this thing has pretty poor shot yield and wouldn't pack much punch. All bark no bite."

"Well you'd be very wrong." I respond. "Go ahead. Test it out on the dummy."

She stands and walks up to the dummy and stands about 1 meter away. She aims the shotgun at it and continually fires it until it overheats 4 shots later. There's a large dent in the head of the dummy. I smirk.

She lowers it and tosses the shotgun back to me. "Like I said: Low shot yield and no punch."

"Excuse me?" I ask slightly offended. "That's an iridium dummy! I'd like to see your shotgun do better."

Tali grabs hers and fires it at the dummy's head. The head gets torn apart much to my surprise.

She lowers her shotgun. "You were saying?"

I gape at it. "Huh… Mine weakened it for you."

She rolls her eyes. "Mine's better."

"Oh yeah?" I say turning on Slug mode. "Can yours do this?"

I shoot the dummy in the torso, blasting it in two.

She nods. "Not bad. That's a slug you fired?"

"Damn right it is." I say turning on Spread Mode. "Check this out."

I shoot the dummy in the leg, creating a perfect circular hole.

She examines it. "Interesting. What was that?"

"This shotgun has multiple modes." I explain showing her the shotgun. "That one was Spread Mode. With it I can split the special barrel into 12 separate ones and control the spread angle of the shots."

I crank the front grip and the laser sights spread slightly.

"Hm." She says approvingly. "Alright that's not bad. But mine is still better."

"What? Why?" I ask incredulously looking at her, frankly, bulky shotgun.

"Simplicity is often better. Mine is just a shotgun and it can get ammo and body mods. Yours can't get them." She says pointing at my shotgun.

I look at it. "Really?"

"Yes. It's built so you can't switch ammo blocks or barrels or anything." She says looking up at me. "It's a good shotgun. But it's not versatile. If you ask me you should stick to normal ones."

I roll my eyes. "I like this shotgun and I'm keeping it. It was pricey so I'm not getting rid of it anytime soon."

She shrugs. "Your choice but I think I won that bet."

She exits the room, shotgun in hand. I glare at her. Yeah right. Mine's better. Tyrannax wouldn't fail me. I holster my shotgun on my back and follow Tali out of the room. I see her leaning against the wall next to my counter.

Tali sees me and pushes herself from the wall. "We should be going now. The meeting is in an alley near Chora's Den on the Wards. You know it?"

"Never been there personally." I respond, walking past Tali and exiting the apartment with her close behind. "But I know of it. It's supposed to have a pretty bad reputation."

"Why's that?" Tali asks, following me up the stairs to the garage.

I shrug. "It's a bar for low lives and scum. In a bad neighborhood and all that. Plus, according to a friend of mine, it's a crap hole."

She chuckles a little. "Crap hole, eh? Just goes to show what kind of person Fist is."

I chuckle, remembering his personality. Yeah… he's not much better than the people who frequent his bar.

I walk up to the cab terminal and pay for a ride to the Lower Wards near Chora's Den. Why there's one near that pit is a mystery to me. If you put me in charge, I'd make it hard for people to get there.

I enter the cab with Tali following. As the cab takes off, I close my helmet and rest my head against the headrest. I close my eyes, which feel very heavy. I should've slept while Tali did.

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><p>"Splicer." I feel a nudge on my arm. I look up at Tali. "We're here."<p>

I look out the window. "Already?"

"Yeah, you fell asleep, I think." She responds.

I'm going to need to catch some sleep soon. I'm exhausted from the day's events. Thinking back, a lot's happened today. I'll get some sleep on the Normandy. That is if I live long enough to see that happen.

I exit the vehicle with Tali and we start walking, slowly, toward the alley next to Chora's Den. Funny. This place is so familiar yet so foreign to me. I've never been here and that isn't any accident. I've deliberately avoided this part of the Citadel, but I can't say for sure why. Balance, maybe? Who knows? Point is that I don't feel right following Tali down this alley toward the meeting place. Everything is so familiar. The Keeper is even where it's supposed to be.

We stop near some crates waiting. It looks like we're a little early. I cross my arms and lean against the wall. I know what'll happen, so no worries about me being taken off guard. Tali on the other hand doesn't know what'll happen. I better cue her in to be safe.

"Hey." I say loudly, catching her attention. She turns to look at me. "Be on your guard. I doubt we'll be meeting the right people, after all."

Tali tilts her head to the side slightly. "You think so? Hm… Do you think Fist will betray us?"

I shrug. "He's got plenty of reason to. The Shadow Broker may not see us as essential after the data's been swapped. At which point we'll just become loose ends."

Tali shrugs. "If it comes to that then it comes to that. But between the two of us I think we can defend ourselves just fine."

I nod in agreement. Makes sense. If memory serves correctly anyway, there's only going to be three guys.

Tali takes a seat on a crate next to me. "So, how'd you get into the mercenary business?"

I look up at her.

"Just trying to make conversation." She says defensively.

I roll my eyes under my helmet. "Uh… Just sort of happened really. I was low on cash and I had sort of had previous combat experience so I decided to get into contact with the Shadow Broker because I knew he probably had a lot of work that needed to be done."

"So you do work for the Shadow Broker?" Tali says suspiciously.

I shake my head. "Not often. I don't trust him at all. Some of the stuff he's asked me to do are sort of low key and I don't even know what I did for some of it. I can refuse anything he asks me to do, even though that might not be exactly smart. There's a reason he's the _Shadow_ Broker. He's always behind you ready to stab you in the back. But he pays damn well."

Tali shrugs. "This information is too important. I don't think he'd go behind our backs… would he?"

I laugh a little. I vaguely remember in the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, a dossier on Tali that provides clear proof that the Shadow Broker was going to go behind her back. "I wouldn't put it past him."

"Well… it's a good thing you're here then." Tali states confidently. She pauses for a second, looking away in thought somewhat. "I need to ask you something."

I frown. "Shoot."

"If this deal does go backwards, are you going to stay with me? Watch my back?" Tali asks, looking at me. "If the Shadow Broker chooses to double cross me, what's stopping you from running off?"

I frown. Like I'd even think about doing that. Even if she wasn't an important character, I'm not the kind of guy to abandon someone and let them get eaten by the dogs. I shrug. "I'll stick around most likely. I don't leave jobs unfinished or half-assed. So, if worst comes to worst, do you have my back?"

Tali is silent for a while before nodding. "As long as you have mine, I'd be glad to return the favor. Besides, you're in as much danger as I am. You've seen the information so you're just another target for Saren."

Good point. I grin. "I guess it looks like _we're_ screwed now. Not just you."

She laughs. "Looks like it. You're so casual about that. Don't you care your life is on the line?"

I shrug. "I'm a mercenary. I do this for a living."

"Put your life on the line?" Tali tilts her head to the side and gives me a look… I think.

I shrug but don't respond.

"It doesn't worry you even a little bit? Going into a fight, not knowing whether you'll get out of it alive or not?" Tali asks pulling her feet up onto the crate and rotating to look at me.

I look down at the floor. "No. I've never noticed that before. I've never felt nervous going into a fight. Not once… well… recently that is."

"Why do you think that is?" She asks. Quarians love stories so it'll be hard to get her to drop it.

I chuckle and look down at the floor. "I think it's because a short fire fight is nothing compared to six years in hell. I think it's because I go into and come out of each fight knowing that I have something to go back to. And in hell… you have nothing."

I stare at the floor for a while longer. I look up at Tali after a while who is staring at me silently.

"Sorry." I say looking at the ground. "You've probably got enough on your mind without me adding to it with cryptic crap."

She laughs. "That's okay. You're an interesting person you know."

I continue to look at the ground. "Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know…" She responds staring at me. "You got this… I want to say quality but I know that's not a very good answer so… You have this air of cold confidence and there's an odd disconnection about you. You are funny and charming but I can see something behind that. I look in your eyes and I see something there that makes me sad."

I look up at her.

"Especially with that helmet on." She comments. "The skull and such. The eye holes accent your eyes and isolate that sadness. Why are you so sad?"

Nosy quarian. I shake my head. "I'm not sad."

"What are you, then?" Tali asks sounding almost sympathetic.

I shrug. "I don't know… I really don't."

Now that I'm in my own head, I'm excited. This is so cool! Not all the personal questions, I hate those. But the fact that this is finally going down!

Suddenly the sounds of distant gunfire make our heads shoot up toward the end of the alley where we came in.

Tali hops off the crate and draws her shotgun. I push myself off the wall and draw my assault rifle. We face the direction of the gunfire, the way we came in. That must be Shepard and his crew attacking Chora's Den.

"What is that?" Tali asks me looking at me nervously.

I shrug. "Don't know for sure. I'm going to take a look. Stay here."

I want to make sure it's them. My presence in this universe has changed a hell of a lot and I'm slightly worried it may have screwed this up too. So I need to make sure.

I start jogging away and as I hit the top of the staircase, Tali calls to me.

"Splicer." She calls. I turn around. "Be careful."

I scoff. "No worries. If anyone's going to survive a bar room gun brawl, it's me."

I exit the alleyway and walk over to the entrance to the large open square walkway that leads to the entrance of Chora's Den. I peek past the wall toward the open entrance of the club. It sounds like a freaking warzone in there.

Suddenly somebody stumbles out of the club clutching at his ribcage and holding a pistol loosely in his hand. He walks quickly in my direction, glancing over his shoulder at the club to make sure no one is following him. He needs help, I better do something.

I walk out of cover and towards him. "Hey-"

He gasps at the sight of me and fires at me frantically, backpedaling toward the club again. The shots spark oddly on my shields which fail quickly. Phasic rounds!

A final lucky shot strikes me in the neck as I try to dive for cover. It causes my helmet to malfunction.

My breath catches as the respiratory function fails and the mask is unable to open. Shit! I claw frantically at my helmet and the clamps holding it to my armor. Finally I remove them all and throw my helmet off. I breathe in and out frantically and desperately for air.

I get to my feet and look around for the bastard who shot at me. He's nowhere in sight. I need to get back to Tali, the meeting should be starting soon and if I delay anymore she's screwed. I jog back toward the alley with my assault rifle at the ready. I hit the door control and run inside once it opens.

I run up the stairs but stop dead in my tracks when I see Tali facing the three Saren agents as the enter the alley from the other end. I crouch down and raise my assault rifle. I pop out the scope and turn on the laser sight. I'll cover her from here. If they see me they'll start shooting so this is safer for her.

I look down the scope and aim at the turian who's doing the talking. This asshole is threatening looking. Face paint that looks like a skull. What turian colony has that as their face paint I wonder?

Damn they're talking kind of loud. I can hear them from all the way up here.

"Tali'Zorah?" The turian with the skull paint says circling around to Tali's other side while the salarians stay on the other, blocking her routes of escape.

"Yes. You're not Fist. Who are you? Where's the Shadow Broker?" Tali asks immediately.

"Did you bring it?" The turian says approaching Tali, who valiantly stands her ground. They must've just gotten there.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" Tali says confidently and suspiciously.

"They'll be here." The turian says running a hand down her arm, causing me to tighten my grip on my rifle. "Where's the evidence?"

Tali slaps his hand off her and turns to walk away. "No way. The deal's off."

The turian backs a step and nods at the two fully armored salarians near some crates. One draws his pistol.

Tali sprints away tossing something off her belt at them. Whatever it was it's explosive, throwing the two salarians off their feet. I aim down the scope at the turian who's drawing a pistol. Damn Shepard and his team sure are late.

Suddenly a massive shock of pain shoots though my head and I stumble back. I feel myself trip over something and start to fall. As I fall I white out.

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><p><em><strong>?<strong>_

_The Dark grips me like a vice. I struggle to fight it but it is too strong._

"_Robert Jackson." The Noise in the Dark calls to me, screaming into my ears. It's such a Noise that it rattles my bones and makes my limbs feel numb._

_The Dark gripping me materializes into the Grim Reaper. Its hideous half organic half machine body clutches me in its bony hands. _

"_You… You are coming to be a real problem, more than an asset. Why don't you just die when allowed to?! Why do you fight?!" The Grim Reaper's grip tightens unbearably._

_But I struggle. I know I can fight it._

_The Grim Reaper stares at me with endless eyes. The feelings, of pain, of horror and of panic tear at me once me. The Dark, it grips me once more. It is a blackness so absolute, so entire, it hurts the ears to listen for it. The Noise, it buries me once more. It is a quiet. I realize it now. It is the Noise of the Dark. That quiet that you strain to listen to. The Noise that makes every sound make you jump, for fear of someone watching._

_I stop struggling. I know I can't fight it._

_The Grim Reaper stares at me with roaring hatred. "You. You are such a strange thing. The others entrusted on me to find the most willfully powerful beings in existence that were weak in their ignorance and could be broken. The others were broken. They bend to the wills of those more powerful than them. But you. You do not bend. You fight back. If you continue to fight the bend you will break. You can't fight something more powerful than you! You will snap into pieces! Why don't you bend?!"_

_I start to struggle again. The Grim Reaper is unsure of itself. It is the ignorant one not me._

_The Grim Reaper's stare of hatred burns ever brighter and the silent Noise of the Dark screams. "You… You insolent child! I am a being everlasting! I am eternal! I transcend death itself! I laugh at it! I am death and power in its purest form! Ignorant! You are ignorant! You think you can fight a being far more powerful than you?! Why?! Foolish! You are mine! You are my slave! Don't you understand you mongrel?! You ungrateful savage! I gave you all that you have! I brought you here! I made you what you are! I turned your accident existence into a meaningful existence! Why?! Why do you continue to fight me?! Why don't you just give up?! Why don't you understand this?! Why won't you listen?! Why do you fight?! What is it that drives you?! What?! WHAT?!"_

* * *

><p>I wake face-down in a dark, damp room. I get up onto all fours and shake my head, leaning back onto my knees. I look up. Looks like I feel down a trash chute. That'd explain the smell…<p>

Only one way out.

I start to climb.

What is it that drives me? That rings in my ears. The Grim Reaper is back. But I don't care.

It's weak. It doesn't understand.

What is it that drives me? What is it that makes me choose to carry on, despite all the pain? What do I have to hold on to? To reach for? What drives me?

I look up at the beam of light at the top of the chute.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

And so I climb.

* * *

><p><strong>End of Part One<strong>

**A/N: And so ends part one of Massive Shock. Thanks for reading! But I wanted to thank all you guys for sticking around this long! It warms the heart.**

**Part two of Massive Shock, Massive Shock 2: Infinite Mass is coming soon. I'm going to take a little break and focus on working on part 2 then I'll post the prologue for Massive Shock 2. If you want to know for sure when I'll release it, but I'm sorry I don't know yet. But, I'll be sure to put out a date for the prologue release on my profile. Of course if you're too lazy, you can favorite or follow me as an author to be notified via email about new stuff I post.**

**After I post the prologue I'll wait a bit and post the official story sometime after that. How long will that be? Uh… we'll see when we have to cross that road. Don't worry I'll keep you all updated.**

**I'm going to take the time and thank each and every one of you one last time for following me through this. ****Especially those who've been with me since chapter 1, coming in week after week, and reading my story as it progressed. To you, and all of my readers, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. To my frequent visitors and reviewers, I'm going to thank you specifically. You don't know how much it means to me that you guys would take the time to tell me what you think of my story and it means a lot to me. I'm not the kind of person to do shout-outs to specific people because that doesn't seem fair, seeing as how I love each and everyone of you all equally. But, my consistent reviewers and readers, know that I know who you are and I can't thank you enough for all your support. That said, I believe at this point I'm at 199 reviews and it's driving me bananas! I'm _pretty _sure that I'll get to 200 and that's all thanks to you guys! I never dreamed that I could reach anything close to that and I'm so so happy that I've been able to reach 200 reviews!**

**It's been 259 days, or 37 weeks, or about 9 months and to all you who have been around since chapter 1, I thank you for your time and your patience and your attention. And to everyone else, I thank you just as much. You're all awesome and to show you all how much I love all of you, I'm going to offer this special deal for the sequel:**

**Every time a milestone is hit, whether it's a certain number of reviews, words, follows, or favorites, I'll post a special one-shot following the Massive Shock story. Except this will be about Splicer's time in Rapture! I have a few ideas for it already, such as Splicer's first plasmid, or his first Little Sister saved, or even Christmas in Rapture! I'll keep the measure of the milestones to my own discretion, but I'm a generous guy so you'll get plenty of them.**

**It's been nearly a year coming, and I'm sad to see it come to an end, but we've got an exciting sequel on its way! And I still enjoy doing this. And I'm not even close to being done.**

**And I hope to see you all again, in the weeks to come.**

**Mockingbird79**

**Logging you out.**


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